PSEi firms up on earnings reports

The local stock barometer firmed up for the fifth straight session 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 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 their foray into the power-generation business.

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

GTCAP, the most actively traded stock, gained 0.5 percent. The company will be included in the MSCI global index after the end of 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 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 2.05 percent after posting strong first-quarter results.

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

URC, BPI and Metrobank also ended lower. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla