Philippine stocks rebound in thin trade

Local stocks rebounded Friday in thin trade, allowing the main-share index to climb back to the 4,300 level, as a string of favorable developments in the United States and Europe rekindled global risk appetite.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 27.9 points, or 0.65 percent, to finish at 4,312.96. This recovered some of the losses in the previous day and brought the index 1.97-percent higher for this week.

Investors across global markets welcomed signs of improvement in Europe, particularly the election of a new prime minister in Greece and a successful bond sale by Italy. Sentiment was also boosted by a surprise drop in US jobless claims.

Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average recouped 112.92 points, or 1 percent, to 11,893.86. On Wednesday, the closely watched index lost nearly 400 points.

“Risk assets bounced overnight in the wake of better news in the eurozone following Italy’s bond auction and some progress on the political front in Greece and Italy,” investment bank Credit Agricole CIB said.

This developed as Greece named a new prime minister while Italy was able to tap the debt market at a better interest rate than what markets had expected.

In the local market, all counters were up but the sharpest

gains were made by the property and mining/oil counters, which jumped more than 1.35 percent.

Value turnover at the local market amounted to P3.57 billion. There were 95 advancers that overwhelmed 41 decliners while 28 stocks were unchanged.

Total foreign buying of P1.27 billion narrowly outpaced foreign selling of P1.16 billion.

The main index was led higher by PLDT, ICTSI, Megaworld, Semirara, Ayala Land, URC, SMC, Belle, Globe, SM Investments, Aboitiz Power, Metrobank and BPI. Non-PSEi stocks NiHao, Zeus Holdings, Security Bank and Lepanto also gained for the day.—Doris C. Dumlao