PSEi rises above 7,700

The local stock barometer firmed up above the 7,700 mark Tuesday, riding on regional markets that were mostly perked up by reports of stronger US factory data.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 41.51 points or 0.54 percent to close at 7,719.24. Investor sentiment across the region was boosted by a better-than-expected American manufacturing data.

“Despite US stocks closing with modest losses following mixed data on both auto sales and manufacturing and in the wake of a weak construction spending report, investors in our local bourse, along with our Asian counterparts, decided to buy up the market,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at local stockbrokerage Regina Capital Development.

The day’s gains were led by the mining/oil counter, which rose by 2.02 percent, while the industrial, holding firm and property counters also ended in positive territory. The financial and services counters slipped.

Total value turnover for the day amounted to P7.07 billion. There were 91 advancers that edged out 85 decliners while 66 stocks were unchanged.

Semirara surged by 6.36 percent while Aboitiz Equity
Ventures rose by 3.19 percent. Semirara has been buying shares from the local stock market while AEV’s power arm Aboitiz Power won the bidding for Blackstone’s interest in two GNPower plants.

Universal Robina Corp., SM Investments Corp. and Jollibee were all up by more than 1 percent while SM Prime, BDO, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Land, Metrobank, Ayala Corp. and BPI also firmed up.

Outside of PSEi stocks, one notable gainer was A. Brown, which rose by 6.14 percent in heavy trade, while Manila Water added 1.64 percent.

On the other hand, Security Bank fell by 2.35 percent while PLDT, GT Capital and Globe all slipped. Cebu Air fell by 4.43 percent. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla