PH shares gain more ground

The local stock barometer climbed to the 7,300 level on Tuesday, as fresh foreign capital flowed into the market amid an improving outlook on inflation.

Bucking sluggish markets elsewhere in the region, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 32.68 points or 0.45 percent to close at 7,302.94. This was driven by selective buying of large-cap stocks.

“Sustained gains may see test toward the 7,500 levels in the near term,” said BDO Unibank chief strategist Jonathan Ravelas.

Foreign investors helped perk up the market with some P526 million in net foreign buying. It was the first time in eight trading days that the market saw net foreign buying. This coincided with the state visit of China President Xi Jinping to the Philippines.

The PSEi was led higher by the financial, holding firm and property counters. On the other hand, the industrial, services and mining/oil counters declined.

Value turnover amounted to P6.92 billion.

Despite the PSEi’s gain, market breadth was negative. There were 109 decliners that outnumbered 84 advancers while 47 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by Ty family-led conglomerate GT Capital, which advanced by 4.59 percent, while property developer Megaworld and Security Bank both gained over 3 percent.

SM Prime, San Miguel Corp. and BPI all added over 2 percent, while SM Investments gained 1.29 percent.