PSEi climbs to 7,600 level

THE LOCAL stock barometer rallied to the 7,600 level on Tuesday as domestic investors picked up oversold stocks while foreign investors continued to trim their local equities.

Outperforming mostly sluggish regional markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 95.88 points or 1.27 percent to close at 7,671.72 .

“Local shares continued the bargain-hunting despite nearly four straight weeks of net foreign selling as they awaited the latest decision from the FED and BOJ (Bank of Japan) regarding monetary policy,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

Traders had taken early cue from Japanese shares as they swung between gains and losses, Limlingan said.

“Monetary policy uncertainty has helped reignite volatility in global markets over the past two weeks, with traders split over what action the BOJ will undertake in its review Wednesday. A slew of weak American economic data has pushed the probability of a U.S. rate hike this week to 20 percent in the futures market, down from more than 40 percent in late August,” Limlingan said.

Except for the industrial counter, all sub-indices at the local market gained led by the services and mining/oil counters which both rose by over 2 percent. The holding firms and property counters advanced by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.38 billion. There were 107 advancers that edged out 72 decliners while 48 stocks were unchanged.

Foreign investors were in a net selling position amounting to P372 million for the day.

ICTSI, a play on global recovery, led the PSEi higher with its 5.47 percent gain while MPIC and Semirara both rose by over 4 percent.

MPIC finally bagged the contract for a connector road project that will like the North and South Luzon Expressways. On the other hand, an audit by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) showed that Semirara’s mine expansion project was “technically sound” and “compliant” with regulations.

GT Capital, SM Prime and PLDT all gained over 3 percent while SMIC, JG Summit and RLC all rose by over 1 percent.

ALI, Security Bank, BPI, Megaworld, Metrobank, Globe and AGI also firmed up.