PSEi breaches 7,700 mark

The local stock barometer Tuesday rallied to 7,700 for the first time this year as rising bets of a gradual increase in interest rates by the US central bank boosted risk appetite across emerging markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 112.32 points or 1.48 percent to close at 7,710.54, buoyed by foreign buying in the local market, which tracked upbeat regional markets.

The latest clues given out by the US Federal Reserve are seen to push back earlier expectations of the Fed raising rates as early as June or July.

“Fed Chair (Janet) Yellen gave an optimistic yet cautious assessment of the outlook, saying additional rate hikes may be appropriate. However, Yellen did not give any concrete indication of when the next hike might be. Our base case

remains September,” said American investment bank BofA Merrill Lynch said in a reserve note.

The closing level Tuesday marked the PSEi’s best closing since May 26, 2015, when the index closed at 7,728.50.

Since the start of the year, the main index has gained 758.46 points or 10.91 percent.

All counters rallied, led by the property sub-index, which rose 2.02 percent. Value turnover amounted to P10.24 billion. There were 126 advancers that edged out 81 decliners while 39 stocks were unchanged. There was P2.45 billion in net foreign buying for the day. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla