Local stocks rally

THE LOCAL stock barometer rallied sharply Thursday, retesting the 7,000 level on the back of rebounding global stock markets and stronger second quarter domestic economic growth.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 154.17 points or 2.24 percent to close at 7,022.09 as investors welcomed the government’s report that the

Philippines had grown its gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter by 5.6 percent year-on-year. This was close to the consensus forecast of 5.7 percent and was better than the 5 percent growth seen in the first quarter.

“The 5.6 percent second quarter GDP growth is not bad considering external headwinds and the El Niño weather phenomenon,” said Emilio Neri Jr., an economist at Bank of the Philippine Islands, noting that the Philippines had joined Vietnam as the only other country in Southeast Asia that had grown faster during the period.

April Lee-Tan, head of research at COL Financial, said although the second quarter performance was slightly below consensus forecast, there were some “positives” such as the 20.4-percent expansion in public construction and the 6.2-percent growth in consumer spending.

While the main index had established a comfortable distance from “bear territory,” it was still behind the 7,230.57 closing at end-2014.

All counters ended sharply higher. The day’s gain was led by the industrial, holding firm and services counters which all advanced by over 2 percent while the rest of the counters rose by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P14.6 billion. There were 139 advancers that dwarfed 45 decliners while 34 stocks were unchanged.

URC led the PSEi higher with its 5.19 percent gain while BDO and Jollibee both advanced by over 4 percent. SM Prime and PLDT gained over 2 percent while ALI, Meralco, SMIC, Megaworld, Metrobank and JG Summit all rose by over 1 percent. Globe and BPI also firmed up.

Among the few that bucked the upswing was ICTSI, which fell by 0.74 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, trading was mostly buoyant following an upbeat trading in Wall Street overnight. The closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Index surged by 3.95 percent.

The stock market in China, the epicenter of Monday’s global stock market meltdown, also improved, with the Shanghai composite index rising by over 5 percent. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla