PSEi stays above 8,000

The local stock barometer set a new peak for this year above 8,000 Wednesday ahead of the corporate earnings reporting season.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 15.96 points or 0.2 percent to close at 8,051.87 as most regional markets rebounded in intraday trade on stimulus bets.

At the local market, the gains were led by the financial, industrial, holding firms and property counters, which made up for the slack in the services and mining/oil counters.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.81 billion. There were 113 advancers that beat 84 decliners while 54 stocks were unchanged.

Investors picked up shares of SM Investments, BPI, GTCAP, AC, Jollibee, LTG and BDO. But the notable gainers were non-PSEi stocks such as Alterra, which surged 18.65 percent on backdoor-listing rumors, while Puregold and Security Bank both gained more than 3 percent.

On the other hand, telecom stocks PLDT and Globe both declined by more than 1 percent. SM Prime, JG Summit and MPI also slipped. Non-PSEi stocks Cemex and Cirtek also succumbed to profit-taking. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla