PH shares trek back to 7,800

The local stock barometer climbed back to the 7,800 level on Friday as domestic investors made up for the slack in foreign risk-taking.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 59.84 points or 0.77 percent to close at 7,819.39 while trading sentiment was mixed across regional markets.

For the week, the PSEi added a total of 118.01 points or 1.5 percent.

The PSEi gained despite around P241.69 million worth of foreign selling, indicating that domestic investors supported the market.

There were 126 advancers that overwhelmed 67 decliners while 51 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by the financial, holding firm and mining/oil counters, while the industrial and services counters also slipped.

Only the interest rate-sensitive property counter ended in the red (-0.55 percent) ahead of the release of the July inflation data and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) monetary setting next week. The BSP is widely expected to raise interest rates and it is just a question of whether the hike will be the usual 25 basis points or a bolder 50 basis points.

The PSEi was led higher by Metrobank and AEV, which both surged by over 3 percent.

Conglomerates Ayala Corp. and JG Summit both rose by over 2 percent, while BPI, URC and PLDT all advanced by over 1 percent.

SM Prime, BDO, SM Investments, Metro Pacific and Jollibee also firmed up.

Notable gainers outside the PSEi basket included third telco aspirant TBGI (+10.53 percent) alongside ATN Holdings (+14.15 percent) and ISM (+5.67 percent). These companies gained in relatively heavy volume.