Stocks continue to recover

The local stock barometer rebounded for the second straight session on Wednesday as an improved trade data in China cheered regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 163.58 points or 2.58 percent to close at 6,494.13, buoyed by foreign inflows.

Stock markets elsewhere in the region were mostly higher on reports that China’s trade surplus increased in December on broad-based improvement in export.

American investment bank BofA Merrill Lynch said the narrowing of China’s import contraction was led by better commodities imports, pointing to some stabilization in domestic demand.

“We remain cautious on export outlook in a global environment with subdued demand,” Merrill Lynch said.

At the local market, there was an across-the-board rebound in all key counters led by the property, industrial and holding firms, which all surged more than 2 percent. The financial, services and mining/oil counters gained more than 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.22 billion. Foreign investors were net buyers amounting to P250 million.

There were 109 advancers that outnumbered 71 decliners while 32 stocks were unchanged.

Megaworld led the PSEi higher with its 8.38-percent rebound while SM Prime and SMIC both rose more than 4 percent.  URC, Metrobank, Jollibee and JG Summit all advanced by over 3 percent while ALI, BPI, BDO, MPI, Bloomberry and EDC rose by over 2 percent. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla