PSEi firms up above 7,600

THE LOCAL stock barometer reversed early losses to firm up above 7,600 on Wednesday on the back of selective buying of large-cap stocks.

But gains were capped by continuing jitters over Semirara Mining and Power Corp. following a deadly landslide that occurred at its Panian mine in Antique last Friday. Semirara, the most actively traded stock for the day, slid by 9.31 percent while parent conglomerate DMCI slumped by 5.1 percent.

The mining/oil counters thus slipped by 4.6 percent but this was offset by the modest gains eked out by the industrial, holding firm, services and property counters.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.55 billion. There were 87 advancers that beat 79 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Investors picked up shares of FGEN, which rose by 5.77 percent alongside Bloomberry, which gained by 3.23 percent. GTCAP and LTG also advanced by over 2 percent while ALI gained by 1 percent.

URC, AC, AGI, PLDT, BDO and SMPH also contributed to the day’s gains.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable gainer was gaming firm Melco, which owns half of the City of Dreams casino.

On the other hand, Jollibee fell by 2.03 percent while JG Summit and ICTSI also ended lower.

Early in the session, the market was in the doldrums following an overnight decline in US stocks, in turn spurred by a string of weak US corporate earnings. While the weak sentiment in Wall Street weighed down regional markets, the PSEi managed to end at positive territory despite volatile foreign investor positioning.

On Wednesday, foreign investors were in a net selling position amounting to P266 million.

Staying above the 7,600 level is seen by dealers as critical for the local stock market to call more bulls back to play.