PSEi up ahead of US-China trade talks

The local stock barometer advanced to the 7,600 mark on Wednesday, tracking regional markets that were mostly upbeat ahead of US-China trade talks and the release of US Federal Reserve meeting details.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 131.73 points or 1.76 percent to close at 7,632.26.

Gio Perez, analyst at local stockbrokerage Papa Securities, said in a research note that sentiment had only gotten better over Tuesday’s holiday break, with US markets powering through the past two nights in anticipation of the US-China trade talks happening later this week.

On the PSEi, Papa Securities said technical readings were showing that a recovery to its recent high and upper bound of the April-to-June range of 7,800 did not seem far off with stochastics already oversold and the PSEi already trading at the support area of 7,500.

A potential catalyst in the next few days could be the US dollar behavior. “[US President Donald] Trump’s complaints last Monday against [US] Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s decisions to raise interest rates might have also lent a hand to the dollar’s recent weakness,” the research note said.

On Wednesday, the PSEi was led higher by the industrial counter, which advanced by 2.63 percent, while the holding firm, mining/oil and property counters all gained more than 1 percent.

The financial and services counters also firmed up.

Value turnover amounted to P6.48 billion. Market breadth was neutral as there were as many advancers and decliners (103) while 36 stocks were unchanged.