PSEi lifted by gaming stocks

THE LOCAL stock barometer eked out a modest gain on Wednesday, aided by a strong rebound by gaming stocks as transit visa rules for mainland Chinese were relaxed.

As regional markets digested the much-anticipated default by Greece on its $1.7-billion debt with the International Monetary Fund, the Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 10.65 points or 0.14 percent to close at 7,575.15.

The main index ended higher for the first time in two days. The PSEi fell to as low as 7,484.52 in intra-day trade but bounced back as investors prowled for bargains whenever the index revisited the 7,400 levels.

The day’s gains were led by the holding firm, services, mining/oil and property counters. On the other hand, the financial and industrial counters slipped.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.46 billion. There were 87 advancers that outnumbered 78 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was buoyed by the 5.69 percent gain by Bloomberry as investors took heart from the news that China was extending transit visas to seven from five days. This means that there will be more gaming business generated from mainland Chinese who visit gaming hubs like Macau on transit visas.

In New York, shares of Macau casino operators rose by 5 percent overnight as the new visa rules took effect this July 1.

AGI, which owns half of integrated gaming operator Travellers, also gained by 2.76 percent. Travellers itself also rose by 1.16 percent while the SM group’s PLC surged by 8.47 percent.

Meanwhile, DMCI and Megaworld gained by over 2 percent and GTCAP, by over 1 percent. SM Prime and SMIC also firmed up.

On the other hand, the day’s gains were curbed by the decline in the shares of Jollibee, URC, PLDT, ALI, BDO, AC, Metrobank, Globe, EDC, JG Summit and BPI.