PSEi back to 7,000

The local stock market rallied back to the 7,000 level on Thursday as bets of sustained easy monetary policy by the European Central Bank (ECB) perked up global markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 155.57 points or 2.27 percent to close at 7,022.38, outperforming regional markets.

The rally was led by the interest rate-sensitive property counter, which surged by 4.07 percent while the industrial and services counters both gained 2 percent. Only the mining/oil counter ended lower.

Manuel Lisbona, president of PNB Securities, said the day’s upswing was reflective of “much-improved market sentiment on the back of Wall Street gains overnight and increasing optimism that the European Central Bank will extend its stimulus program.”

“Chart-wise, the market closed above 7,000 by a hangnail. Hopefully the bulls will continue to push the market convincingly higher in the next few sessions,” he said.

In a research note, Citigroup said expectations of quantitative easing (QE) extension from ECB at the same pace of 80b billion euros per month seemed to have risen lately.

Citi economists expect extension of QE until end of 2017 but at a reduced pace of 60 billion per month. “Such an outcome would be hawkish to consensus market expectations and may push global yield curves bear steeper,” Citi said.

At the local market, value turnover for the day amounted to P7.47 billion. There were 120 advancers that edged out 63 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.

By counter, ALI led the day’s rally, rising by 5.03 percent. It was the day’s most actively traded stock.

PLDT, SM Prime, JG Summit were all up by over 4 percent while URC and Jollibee edged higher by 3 percent.

Ayala Corp. rose by 2.7 percent while Megaworld, GT Capital, ICTSI and DMCI all gained over 1 percent.

BDO, SMIC, MPI and BPI also contributed to the day’s gains.