PSEi gains 0.77%

The local stock barometer on Tuesday rallied back to the 6,700 level, tracking an upswing across regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 51.37 points or 0.77 percent to close at 6,743.95. Across the region, investors took heart from rebounding Chinese markets and global oil prices, the dovish European Central Bank (ECB) comments and improved US consumption data.

In the case of oil prices, there was speculation that Saudi Arabia and Russia might cooperate to curb oil output and ease the current supply glut that has brought down oil prices.

At the local market, the day’s gains were led by services counter, which was up by 2.15 percent, while the property counter also gained by 1.21 percent.

Only the mining/oil counter ended lower (-0.95 percent) for the day.

Value turnover for the day hit P6.79 billion. There was about P155 million in net foreign selling on Tuesday.

There were 93 advancers, 88 decliners while 38 stocks were unchanged.

EDC led the PSEi higher with its 5.85-percent rise while PLDT rose by 3.83 percent ahead of its fourth quarter corporate earnings report.

Megaworld and FGEN gained over 3 percent while ICTSI added 2.7 percent.

ALI and Globe both rose by over 1 percent while SM Prime, AC, BDO, Petron, Metrobank, SMIC, Jollibee, BPI and AP all firmed up.

On the other hand, there was profit-taking on gaming stocks Bloomberry (-4.55 percent) and non-PSEi stock Melco (-1.97 percent) after the rebound seen in previous days.

After a seven-year bull run, the PSEi has pulled back by around 17 percent from the peak level seen in April last year.