PSEi rises back to 7,100

THE LOCAL stock barometer rose back to the 7,100 mark on Thursday on selective buying of large-cap stocks.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 24.88 points or 0.35 percent to close at 7,117.78, climbing for the third straight session ahead of the third quarter local corporate earnings reporting season.

Across the region, stock markets were mixed ahead of a European Central Bank meeting during which investors were on the look-out for quantitative easing plans. Global growth concerns were still curbing risk appetite among investors.

All counters advanced but the biggest gainer was the mining/oil sub-index which firmed up by 1.34 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P5.69 billion. There was a modest net foreign buying for the day amounting to P68 million.

Despite the PSEi’s rise, market breadth was negative. There were 82 advancers which were outnumbered by 93 decliners while 42 stocks were unchanged.

Megaworld led the PSEi higher with its 3.6 percent rise after announcing that it was fast-tracking the build-up of one million square meters of leasable office space ahead of the 2018 target.

PLDT rose by nearly 2 percent while BDO, Meralco and RLC all gained by over 1 percent. SM Prime, AC and Globe also modest contributed to the day’s gain.

Outside of the PSEi, the notable gainers were Nickel Asia (+5.59 percent) and DNL (+0.6 percent).

On the other hand, ALI, SMIC, Metrobank, MPI and ICTSI slipped.