Philippine stock prices continue to rise

MANILA, Philippines—Local stock prices extended their gains on Wednesday as investors were emboldened by an overnight rally on Wall Street.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index jumped by another 33.47 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 4,245.28, riding on the upbeat global sentiment driven by prospects of a resolution of the Greek fiscal crisis.

All counters were up but the mining/oil and property counters advanced the most, by 2 percent and 1.32 percent, respectively.

Turnover, however, was thinner at P4.8 billion in the absence of block trades that boosted volume the previous day.

There were 94 advancers that overwhelmed 40 decliners while 43 stocks were unchanged.

The rise of the index was led by PLDT, Aboitiz Power, Metro Pacific Investments, Philex Mining, EDC, Ayala Corp., DMCI, Ayala Land, BPI, Lepanto “A” (open only to local investors), Megaworld, SM Prime and FPH.

The day’s most actively traded stock was Atlas Mining, followed by San Miguel Corp. Both traded higher on the stock market.

On the other hand, the day’s index gains were tempered by some profit-taking on Metrobank, Meralco and ICTSI.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Index surged by 109.63 points or 0.91 percent to 12,190.01.