PSEi breaks 8,100-mark, closes 1.71% up

The local stock barometer finished above the 8,100 mark for the first time this year on Friday, buoyed by dovish US monetary policy stance and lower local inflation outlook.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 136.68 points, or 1.71 percent, to close at 8,144.16.

An intraday peak of 8,165.66 was hit as foreign funds continued to flow into local equities. There was P1.02 billion in net foreign buying for the day.

Eagle Equities Inc. president Joseph Roxas said investors were emboldened by expectations that the US Federal Reserve was not in a hurry to hike interest rates further while locally, the slowdown in inflation would give the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) room to cut the reserve requirement on banks.

The BSP is expecting the January inflation rate to come in at 4.3 percent to 5.1 percent.

For the week, the PSEi added 90.96 points, or 1.1 percent.

All counters ended higher, led by the property counter, which rose by 2.15 percent.

The financial, industrial, holding firm and services counters advanced by over 1 percent.

Value turnover amounted to P8.97 billion.

There were 171 advancers that edged out 49 decliners, while 36 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was buoyed by conglomerate GT Capital, which rose by 4.87 percent.

BDO added 3.7 percent, while SM Prime and Puregold all added over 2 percent.

Ayala Land, Ayala Corp., URC, Jollibee, RRHI, AGI and BPI all went up by over 1 percent.

Metrobank and ICTSI also firmed up.

Notable gainers outside the PSEi included Phinma Energy, which rose by 6.25 percent. The Ayala group is taking over this energy firm.

Megawide added 1.44 percent while PHA inched up by 0.62 percent.

There was profit-taking on non-PSEi stocks ISM and Greenergy, which respectively fell by 1 percent and 4.15 percent.