PSEi closes 0.45% up, nears 8,000 mark

The local stock barometer trekked closer to the 8,000 level on Friday, tracking upbeat US and regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 35.28 points, or 0.45 percent, to close at 7,933.47.

For the week, the main barometer lost 46.19 points, or 0.6 percent.

Local stock brokerage Papa Securities said the market was shored up by upbeat US markets, in turn driven by news of the United States and China scheduling fresh trade talks next month. It said that a breakout past 8,000 might soon happen.

“Next resistance past this would be around 8,130—the index’s breakdown point in late July—and was also a resistance level in late June,” the brokerage said.

On Friday, the PSEi was led higher by the services and property counters, which both gained over 1 percent.

The industrial and holding firm counters also gained.

On the other hand, the mining/oil counter fell by 1.15 percent due to profit-taking on nickel mining firms. The financial counter also slipped.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.66 billion. There was a modest net foreign selling of P29.11 million.

There were 96 advancers that outnumbered 91 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by Ayala Land and ICTSI, which both added over 2 percent, while SM Investments and SM Prime both rose by over 1 percent.

Metrobank, Megaworld, Security Bank, AGI and URC all firmed up.

Outside of PSEi stocks, notable gainers included Cirtek Holdings, which surged by 10.99 percent.

BDO, JG Summit and GT Capital all declined by over 1 percent, while Ayala Corp. and BPI both slipped.

Nickel Asia pulled back by 4 percent. This nickel miner had risen sharply in previous days on news that Indonesia would accelerate a plan to ban ore exports by two years to January 2020.