PH shares surge past 7,500

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) surged past the 7,500 level on Monday, overcoming an inauspicious start when the market opening was delayed by 45 minutes due to a transmission failure by a telco provider.

By the closing bell yesterday, the PSEi had gained 2.24 percent, or 165.05 points, to 7,532.90, as large conglomerates advanced.

“The glitch was not enough to dampen sentiments,” Joey Roxas, president of stock brokerage firm Eagle Equities Inc., said in an interview.

He cited the relatively positive outcome in the trade discussions between the United States and China. He said investors were also looking at emerging markets with “renewed interest”.

The PSE on Monday said the market opening was delayed “due to the failure of the telecommunication line” to its data center, production and disaster recovery sites.

The PSE, which taps multiple telco providers for redundancy purposes, did not say whose line had failed.

The technical issue nonetheless caused the market to open at 10:15 a.m. instead of 9:30 a.m.

Data from the PSE showed that volume also hit P10.22 billion as 1.49 billion shares changed hands. A total of 115 companies gained, while 73 ended in the red and 48 firms closed unchanged.

Moreover, all subsectors ended in positive territory on Monday. Property and holding firms led the way, with gains of 2.91 percent and 2.75 percent, respectively.

Leading the list of actively traded stocks was Metropolitan Bank and Trust, which gained 3 percent to P76.85 a share.

It was followed by Ayala Land Inc., up 0.6 percent to P41.90; SM Prime Holdings Inc., up 5.19 percent to P36.50; Aboitiz Power Corp., up 4.42 percent to P33.10 and BDO Unibank Inc., up 2.3 percent to P133.20 a share.