Philippine stocks go up on blue chip buying

MANILA, Philippines—The local stocks index firmed up slightly on Monday, now nearing the 4,300 mark, on the back of selective buying of blue chips.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 0.8 point, or 0.02 percent, to finish at 4,291.72.

The market opened strongly but pared down gains at closing due to profit-taking on services, whose counter dipped by 1 percent. Financial and mining stocks kept the market buoyant as their respective sub-indices respectively jumped by 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

Value turnover amounted to P5.8 billion. Despite the overall index gain, there were only 66 advancers, which were outnumbered by 81 decliners, while 50 stocks were unchanged.

Mining magnate Felipe Yap’s Lepanto remained a market favorite, with the company’s A (open to local) and B (open to all) shares further rising in heavy trade.

The PSEi itself was kept afloat by BDO, URC, Metrobank, AGI, BPI, Megaworld, Aboitiz Power, EDC, ALI and AEV.

On the other hand, the gains of the main index were tempered by the decline in share prices of SM Investments, PLDT, SMC, ICTSI and MPI. Non-index stocks LR and FLI also closed lower.