PSEi rallies as US growth data boosts Asian marts

THE LOCAL stock barometer continued to rebound on Friday as regional markets cheered the better-than-expected US economic growth for the second quarter.

Rising for the fourth straight session since the freefall during the global meltdown last Monday, the Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 76.72 points or 1.09 percent to close at 7,098.81.

The day’s gains were led by the mining/oil counter which surged by 5.16 percent while the industrial, holding firm and property counters all rose by over 1 percent.

Only the services counter ended in negative territory.

Value turnover for the day was heavy at P11.26 billion. There were 129 advancers which edged out 46 decliners while 40 stocks were unchanged.

ALI , GTCAP and Globe led the PSEi higher, all surging by over 3 percent while JG Summit, Semirara and AEV all rose by over 2 percent. BDO and AC, on the other hand, all advanced by over 1 percent.

URC, SM Prime, Metrobank, Meralco, MPI and Jollibee also firmed up.

On the other hand, PLDT, BPI and ICTSI bucked the day’s upswing, all declining by over 1 percent.

Across the region, stock markets were mostly higher as investors welcomed the 3.7 percent US second quarter gross domestic product growth rate for the second quarter, which beat expectations of 3.2 percent.

Despite the rebound in the last four days, the PSEi was still down by around 2.5 percent for the week due to the sharp decline last Monday.