PSEi up slightly

THE LOCAL stock barometer firmed up after a sluggish start Friday as regional markets drew optimism from the rebound in oil prices and the G-20 finance ministers’ summit in Beijing.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) firmed up by 2.04 points or 0.03 percent to close at 6,771.30, led by the gains eked out by utility Meralco. In morning trade, the PSEi was down 30.72 points.

Citigroup said in a research note Friday that sentiment continued to improve ahead of the G20 meetings that began in Shanghai. Overnight, it noted that equities had risen alongside oil prices and most G10 and emerging market currencies outperformed the US dollar and the Japanese yen.

“We are not convinced of a sustainable bullish break, but recognize factors supporting a counter-trend rally,” Citi said.

G-20 or Group of Twenty (G20) is a forum on international economic cooperation and decision-making participated in by 19 countries plus the European Union. They represent about 85

percent of global gross domestic product, more than 75 percent of global trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. The members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and European Union.

At the local market, the small gain was driven by the industrial, holding firm and mining/oil counters.  On the other hand, the financial, property and services counters ended lower.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.46 billion. There were 94 advancers that edged out 83 decliners while 42 stocks were unchanged.

Meralco led the PSEi higher, rising by 3.51 percent. The utility announced a 4-percent growth in core net profit to P18.9 billion in 2015 and projected roughly the same amount for 2016.  Parent conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. also gained 2.09 percent.

On the other hand, Petron slumped by 3.55 percent while ALI, BPI, AC and DMCI all fell more than 1 percent.  PLDT, Globe and AGI also slipped. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla