THE LOCAL stock barometer firmed up on Friday while regional markets traded with mixed sentiment ahead of next week’s closely watched US Federal Reserve policy meeting.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 17.84 points or 0.26 percent to close at 6,911.38. For the week, the PSEi lost a sum of 140.4 points or nearly 2 percent from last week’s finish of 7,051.78 amid volatile global financial markets. Since the start of the year, the local barometer had declined by 2.75 percent.
On Friday, holding firms, services, mining/oil and property counters advanced while the financial and industrial counters declined.
Value turnover was still thin at P4.51 billion. There were 86 advancers that outnumbered 72 decliners while 42 stocks were unchanged.
The day’s gains were led by DMCI, which advanced by 4.11 percent while its mining and power unit Semirara rose by 1.29 percent as markets anticipated the reopening of its Panian mine in Antique.
Index heavyweight PLDT also rose by 1.73 percent, tracking upbeat trading in Wall Street. MPI was likewise up by 1.82 percent while ALI also gained by 1.93 percent.
SM Prime, GTCAP, Meralco and Metrobank all posted modest gains.
Outside of PSEi stocks, the notable gainers included FNI (+2.7 percent), DoubleDragon (+5.73 percent) and Puregold (+0.64 percent) which all gained in heavy volume.
On the other hand, Megaworld slipped by 1.63 percent while SM Investments, BDO, EDC, BPI and AC also faltered.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial index added 76.83 points or 0.47 percent to close at 16,330.40. Asian markets, however, were mixed ahead of the much anticipated policy meeting of the US Fed next week. Previously, markets were expecting the US Fed to start raising interest rates at this upcoming meeting but many had pushed back such expectations to December or early next year due to China’s economic woes that reverberated across the globe.
Due to jitters over the US Fed’s interest rates alongside concerns on the Chinese economy, foreign funds have pulled out a lot of money from the local stock market similar to the shakeout in most emerging markets.