The local stock barometer flirted with the 7,900 mark in intraday trade before paring gains on Monday, riding on the strong momentum seen last week.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 26.55 points or 0.34 percent to close at 7,787.66, supported by heavy foreign inflows.
It hit an intraday high of 7,900.70 before closing at the day’s low.
The PSEi was led higher by the property counter, which added 1.61 percent, while the industrial, holding firm, services and mining/oil counters also firmed up.
On the other hand, the financial counter slipped by 1.31 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.41 billion. There were 126 advancers that edged out 82 decliners, while 38 stocks were unchanged.
Jollibee led the PSEi higher with a gain of 4.53 percent; while Ayala Corp. and Puregold also rallied by nearly 4 percent.
Ayala Land racked up 2.52 percent, while SM Prime, URC, Megaworld, JG Summit and ICTSI all rose by over 1 percent.
Outside the PSEi, notable gainers included Wilcon and Bloomberry, which both added over 4 percent. Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy-affiliated ISM advanced by 2.69 percent.
Local stock brokerage Papa Securities said 7,900 did not seem like a far-off call now, given how US markets surged once again last Friday. Overall fear in the market could also already be subsiding.
“To put more cherries on top of the cake, EPHE (an exchange-traded fund tracking MSCI Philippines) also surged 3.7 percent to close at its highest level since May. Applying the same gain to our own PSEi puts us in the 8,050 area,” Papa analyst Gio Perez said in a research note.
“Foreign money poured into the market today with net buying at P1.22 billion which is more than what came in from last week’s trading,” Eagle Equities head of research Christopher Mangun said.
“The last-minute selling today justifies the pullback that we are expecting for this week. From technical standpoint, the main index has come up against its strong resistance area, thus the pullback. However, this is a healthy pullback and should be treated as a buying opportunity,” he added.