PSEi moves closer to 7,000

The local stock barometer rallied closer to the 7,000 mark on Thursday as higher oil prices and news of another China stimulus plan improved investors’ risk appetite across the region.

Rising for the third straight session, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 80.99 points or 1.18 percent to close at 6,963.44 yesterday.

The gains were led by holding firms, which rose by 2.29 percent.  The services and property counters also gained over 1 percent while the financial and industrial counters posted modest gains.

Only the mining/oil counter declined (-1.26 percent).

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.94 billion.  There were 106 advancers against 71 decliners. A total of 43 stocks were unchanged.

The gains were led by Megaworld and Petron, which both rose by over 5 percent, while SMIC gained 4.16 percent.  AC, EDC and AGI each rose by over 3 percent while AEV and JG Summit were up by over 2 percent.

GTCAP gained 1 percent while PLDT and SM Prime also firmed up.

Outside of the PSEi, notable gainers were DoubleDragon (+8.02 percent) and RRHI (+2.38 percent).

Nonetheless, the PSEi’s gains were tempered by the decline of MPI (-4.43 percent) and BDO (-1.4 percent).

Shares of URC, Metrobank and Jollibee also slipped.Doris Dumlao-Abadilla