Stock index up 0.75%, moves closer to 8,000

The local stock barometer moved closer to the 8,000 level yesterday as upbeat jobs data in the United States 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.

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

“Locally, the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) meets on 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 BSP 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.
Weaker peso

In the meantime, the peso yesterday closed at 50.355:$1, weaker than the 50.16:$1 last Friday.

At the Philippine Dealing System, the peso reached an intraday low of 50.375:$1 and a high of 50.25:$1 after opening at 50.3:$1.