PSEi firms up for 5th session

THE LOCAL stock barometer firmed up for the fifth straight session on Friday as corporate Philippines wrapped up the first quarter earnings reporting season.

The local stock barometer gained 50.51 points or 0.64 percent to close at 7,881.95, tracking an upbeat trading in Wall Street overnight. An intra-day peak of 7,900.88 was hit.

All counters were up but the biggest gainer was the mining/oil counter which rose by 1.14 percent.

There were 104 advancers that edged out 69 decliners while 49 stocks were unchanged. Value turnover amounted to P7.62 billion.

The PSEi was led higher by Consunji-led DMCI (+2.72 percent) and Semirara (+3.16 percent) following reports of robust first quarter results, in turn driven by the foray into the power generation business.

EDC was up by 2 percent while AC, AGI, ALI, SM and Globe all rose by over 1 percent.

GTCAP, the most actively traded stock, gained another 0.5 percent. This company will be included in the MSCI global index after this month.

Jollibee, BDO and SM Prime also contributed to the day’s gains.

Outside of the PSEi, Cebu Air was among the notable gainers, rising by 6.11 percent after posting higher first quarter results. The airline has greatly benefited from the steep fall in fuel prices.

Vista Land also gained by 2.05 percent likewise after posting strong first quarter results.

On the other hand, Bloomberry continued to fall (-5.66 percent) after announcing a larger-than-expected first quarter net loss.

URC, BPI and Metrobank also ended lower.