Main stock price index rises above 7,200

The local stock barometer climbed to the 7,200 level on Monday as local investors picked up oversold stocks even as foreign investors continued to shy away from the local market.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 73.15 points, or 1.02 percent, to close at 7,213.44, defying mostly sluggish regional markets.

Local stockbrokerage Papa Securities said the PSEi was catching up with the upswing in overseas markets while the local bourse was on a long weekend break. The market was closed on Thursday and Friday last week as the nation honored the dead.

The brokerage said the PSEi was “in a great position to break out of its current downtrend resistance given how it closed right at the precipice” in the last week.

It noted that technical indicator based on relative strength index continued to trend up after recently recovering from the oversold level.

Papa Securities noted that the market was anticipating a slew of data this week, including the October inflation report (Tuesday), the announcement of the third telco player and the September trade data on (Wednesday) and the third quarter Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) report and the US Fed meeting (Thursday).

On Monday, all counters ended higher, led by the industrial, holding firm, services and mining/oil counters, which all rose by more than 1 percent.

Total value turnover amounted to P22.56 billion, bloated by a P14.6-billion block sale on EDC following the conclusion of the tender offer for common shares held by the public.

Net foreign selling remained heavy at P5.76 billion.

There were 100 advancers that edged out 93 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by URC, AGI and ICTSI, which all rose by more than 3 percent.

Metro Pacific, PLDT, LTG and JG Summit both gained over 2 percent, while Jollibee, Ayala Corp., SM Investments, Metrobank and Security Bank all added more than 1 percent.