PSEi rallies to 6,600 level

THE LOCAL stock barometer rallied back to the 6,600 level on Friday on follow-through buying inspired by the country’s better-than-expected fourth quarter economic growth while the surprise monetary policy move of Bank of the Japan boosted regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 124.24 points or 1.89 percent to close at 6,687.62. The index thus breached a key resistance level at 6,600 and continued its move away from “bear” territory.”

Across the region, markets rallied after the Japanese central bank’s decision to adopt a “negative” interest rate policy to perk up the economy. This means that instead of the bank paying interest to depositors, the depositors must pay to be allowed to keep their money with the bank. This is thus a move to divert money away from banks to more productive sectors, thereby providing economic stimulus.

At the local market, there was also follow-through buying after Thursday’s announcement of 6.3 percent economic growth in the Philippines in the fourth quarter of 2015, beating consensus estimates of close to 6 percent.

The day’s gains were led by the holding firm counter – deemed as a proxy of the overall economy – which rose by 2.51 percent. The cyclical property counter also gained by 2 percent while the industrial and services counters were up by over 1 percent. The financial counter was modestly higher.

Only the mining/oil counter ended in the red.

Value turnover was heavy at P9.8 billion. There were 116 advancers that edged out 53 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

JG Summit led the PSEi’s rally, gaining by 6.86 percent. Megaworld was up by 4.39 percent.

URC and GTCAP rose by over 3 percent while PLDT, ALI, BDO and AEV gained over 2 percent.

AC, SMIC, Globe, DMCI and BPI added 1 percent while SM Prime, Jollibee and AP also firmed up.

Outside of the PSEi, the notable gainers were Melco (+10.24 percent) and SSI (+28 percent).

On the other hand, Metrobank declined by 2.67 percent.