PSEi climbs to 7,500 level

THE LOCAL stock barometer surged to the 7,500 level for the first time in nine months on Monday as the market bet on rosy domestic economic results while weighing future economic programs along with the recent MSCI weight rebalancing.

Against the backdrop of volatile regional markets, the Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 74.95 points or 1 percent to close at 7,511.74.

Apart from continuing the post-election rally, dealers said the market may be digesting the changes in the weights of stocks under the MSCI – an index closely tracked by many international fund managers – as the announced rebalancing will take affect after the end of this month.

The market likewise weighed in the remaining corporate earnings results for the first quarter while betting on a good first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) report for the Philippines later in the week.

The day’s rally was led by the mining/oil counter which rose by 2.5 percent while the holding firm and property counters advanced by over 1 percent.

Only the services index ended lower (-0.36 percent).

Total value turnover for the day amounted to P9.66 billion. There were 127 advancers that outnumbered 73 decliners while 47 stocks were unchanged.

JG Summit, the day’s most actively traded stock, led the PSEi higher with its 4.28 percent gain. SM Prime rose by 3.15 percent while Jollibee, Megaworld and FGEN all advanced by over 2 percent.

SMIC, DMCI and MPI all gained over 1 percent while AC, GTCAP, URC and PLDT contributed modest gains.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable gainer was Security Bank, which rose by 1.84 percent. This bank is debuting on the MSCI Philippines index.

On the other hand, Globe and AEV slipped. Outside of PSEi stocks, retailers Puregold (-0.24 percent) and RRHI (-3.07 percent) also slipped in heavy volume.