Stocks end 4-day slide

LOCAL SHARE prices Friday snapped a four-day slide as idle local funds looked for cheap stocks.

Gains on Wall Street the night before also helped the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) climb 22.5 points or 0.59 percent to close at 3,839.88 points. Week on week, the index closed 2.15-percent lower.

The increase Friday erased about a fifth of the losses sustained through Thursday.

All sectors posted increases. All sub-indices gained, led by mining and oil (up 3.12 percent or 432 points to 14,281.83) and the service sector, which gained 1.05 percent or 13.88 points to 1,332.39.

Trading volume fell but value rose, with 1.15 billion shares worth P5.58 billion changing hands compared with 1.21 billion shares worth P4 billion on Thursday.

The day’s 89 advancers outnumbered by more than two to one the 35 decliners. A total of 37 stocks closed unchanged.

Stocks have been on a decline since the start of the week after Japan’s nuclear woes and poor US housing data sent jitters across world markets.

“Index heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) was the second most actively traded as it checked a similar five-day slide which squeezed 11.28 percent off its market cap,” local brokerage firm Accord Capital Equities said in a comment. Paolo G. Montecillo