The local stock barometer rallied back to the 8,000-mark on Friday as investors revisited emerging markets that they shied away from last year, including the Philippines.
Tracking upbeat global markets, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recouped 119.92 points or 1.51 percent to close at 8,047.12, a new high for this year.
For the week, the PSEi gained a total of 143.03 points or 1.81 percent.
“There’s demand for large-cap stocks and then if you look at fund flows, there’s net foreign buying almost every day. It looks like America will stop raising rates for now, or will at least stop raising rates significantly. At the same time, there seems to be headway in the US-China trade talks. China is trying to stimulate its domestic economy, so in general, the world is looking more conducive to equities,” said Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc.
“Emerging markets fell sharply last year so when you look at the charts, you can take some profits [out of] countries that have done better last year and pick up those that were sold down,” he added.
At the local market, all counters were up on Friday. The industrial, holding firm, services and property counters all rose by over 1 percent.
Total value turnover for the day hit P8.43 billion. Net foreign buying amounted to P1.3 billion.
There were 111 advancers that edged out 76 decliners, while 59 stocks were unchanged.
The PSEi was led higher by GT Capital and ICTSI, which both rose by over 3 percent, while SM Prime, Megaworld, SM Investments, AEV, AGI and URC were all up over 2 percent.
Ayala Corp. and JG Summit both added over 1 percent. BDO, Puregold, BPI and Security Bank also gained.
One notable gainer outside the PSEi was Cemex Holdings, which surged by 18 percent in heavy trade.
Cement prices are seen to rise as the government slapped a 4-percent tariff on cement imports. Other listed cement-makers like Holcim (+4.96 percent) and Eagle Cement (+3.79 percent) also rallied.
On the other hand, Meralco fell by 2.33 percent, while LTG slipped by 0.66 percent. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA