PSEi pulls through amid MSCI tweaks

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose on Friday to close the week above a key support zone while investors weighed changes to the closely followed MSCI Index and Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) more than 11-percent pump after announcing lower electricity rates in February.

The benchmark measure ended the session up 0.5 percent, or 34 points, to 6,876.79, which was just above the 6,850 support zone. The All Shares index added 0.27 percent, or 9.67 points, to 3,653.17.

The market closed mostly in the green save for Ayala companies ACEN Corp. and Globe Telecom, which will be removed from the MSCI Global Standard Indexes. The changes will take effect on Feb. 28.

A total of 824.87 million shares valued at P5.92 billion changed hands while foreigners were net sellers of an amount totaling P24.26 million.

The services subsector was the sole loser as it slipped 0.16 percent.

Industrial stocks climbed 1.1 percent, followed by holding firms (+0.49 percent), financials (+0.37 percent) property (+0.2 percent), and mining and oil (+0.08 percent).

Meralco was the top traded stock as the price surged to P315 per share.

—Miguel R. Camus