PSEi up for 6th straight session

THE LOCAL stock barometer yesterday rose slightly, overcoming a rough start, as corporate earnings reporting season started.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index inched up by 1.36 points or 0.02 percent to close at 7,325.76, rising for the sixth straight session. There was P541 million net foreign buying for the day.

The interest rate-sensitive property index led the main index higher as it rose by 1.35 percent, boosted by the monetary easing bias of major central banks. The financial and industrial counters likewise increased slightly.

Services counter faltered by 1.98 percent while the holding firm and mining/oil counters also dipped.

Value turnover for the day hit P6.76 billion. Despite the PSEi’s gain, market breadth was negative as there were more decliners (91) than advancers (72).

The PSEi was led higher by RLC, which rose by 2.24 percent while property peers SM Prime and ALI both gained over 1 percent. Metrobank, Meralco and MPI also rose by over 1 percent while URC, AC, BDO and BPI also contributed to the day’s gains.

Outside of PSEi stocks, a notable gainer was DNL, which rose by 0.95 percent after reporting that its core nine-month net profit rose by 13 percent and that it would double dividend payout ratio to 50 percent starting 2016. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla