Blue chips break through 6,800

MANILA, Philippines —The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) ended Wednesday’s session above 6,800—its highest close in a year—as investors snapped up blue chip stocks while net foreign buying breached P1 billion.

By the closing bell, the PSEi rose 1.11 percent, or 74.78 points, to 6,830 for a fourth-consecutive day of gains while the broader All Shares index added 0.78 percent, or 27.71 points, to 3,566.76.

A total of 829.44 millions shares valued at P6.33 billion changed hands while foreign investors made net purchases of P1.21 billion, data from the stock exchange showed.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said investors also cheered “the best employment data in nearly two decades or since revised records started in 2005.”

READ:  PH jobless rate eased to record low of 3.1% in Dec 2023

Such jobs data were released “a day after the latest easing in the Philippine headline inflation data to 2.8 percent year-on-year [in January],” Ricafort noted.

READ: PH inflation slowed to 2.8% in January

Subsectors were mostly higher, led by services, property and holding firms while mining and oil slumped.

Gains among large cap stocks were led by Ayala Corp., the most actively traded firm as it rallied 6.40 percent to P715 per share.

Stock movements were also driven by acquisition talks after an Inquirer source confirmed that Consunji-led DMCI Holdings is in talks to acquire Cemex Holdings Philippines. DMCI dropped 2.37 percent to P10.72 each while Cemex was down 1.28 percent to P1.54 each after rallying nearly 80 percent since Monday.