The stock barometer made its way back to the 7,800 level on Wednesday as demand for large-cap stocks returned in the aftermath of the MSCI rebalancing.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 129.09 points or 1.68 percent to close at 7,836.89 despite some P1.05 billion worth of net foreign selling for the day.
With the dust settling from the recent MSCI rebalancing, local stock brokerage Papa Securities said the PSEi should “finally see some reprieve and gain traction in the next few days.”
“Continued optimism from US markets should also provide a boost to the region with the S&P500 and Dow closing at new all-time highs once again (Tuesday) last night.
They both closed 0.2 percent in the green, still rallying around optimism from (US-China) trade talks,” the brokerage said.
Elsewhere in the region, trading sentiment was mixed.
The local market was led higher by the financial and property counters, which both gained over 2 percent.
The industrial counter added 1.89 percent while the holding firm and mining/oil counters also gained slightly. Only the services counter declined.
Value turnover amounted to P7.68 billion.
There were 102 advancers that outnumbered 77 decliners, while 54 companies were unchanged.
Fast-food giant Jollibee climbed by 7.5 percent, while Ayala Land and BDO both racked up over 4 percent.
DMCI and AGI both added over 3 percent while BPI, Ayala Corp., SM Prime, Aboitiz Power, JG Summit and Megaworld both rose by over 2 percent.
Metrobank advanced by 1.41 percent while AEV, ICTSI and Security Bank all firmed up by less than 1 percent.
On the other hand, PLDT fell by 2.53 percent. Both SM Investments and Metro Pacific also slipped.