PSEi moves closer to 8,000

The local stock barometer moved closer to the 8,000 level on Monday as upbeat US jobs data boosted most regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 59.45 points or 0.75 percent to close at 7,992.27 on the back of selective buying of large cap stocks.

“Local shares traded higher feeding off US equities ending the session higher after posting a solid set of July jobs data,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at local stock brokerage Regina Capital Development.

U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs in July, beating consensus estimates, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent.

“Locally, BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) meets Aug 10. We expect the BSP to leave policy rates unchanged, keeping the overnight reverse repo rate at 3 percent, and the overnight deposit rate at 2.5 percent. However, we think that the reserve requirement ratio (currently at 20 percent) is likely to be cut as Governor (Nestor) Espenilla has indicated more space for monetary fine-tuning,” Limlingan said.

All counters were up led by the holding firms, which rose by 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day, however, was relatively thin at P4.88 billion. There was net foreign selling worth P40.8 million for the day.

Despite the PSEi’s gain, market breadth was negative. There were 99 decliners that edged out 88 advancers while 59 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by BDO, ICTSI, SM Investments, Metrobank, Jollibee, GT Capital and Globe Telecom which all rose by over 1 percent.

EDC, Megaworld, PLDT, Metro Pacific and Semirara also firmed up.

Outside the PSEi, notable gainers included Global Ferronickel, which surged by 6.94 percent, while Philippine Seven and APC were respectively up by 3.55 percent and 2.9 percent.