PH stock index firms up after 3-day decline

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index firmed up on Thursday after a three-day slump, posting a marginal gain despite lingering concerns among investors over China’s growth.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index added 5.58 points, or 0.11 percent, to finish at 5,043.52.  The day’s bounce was tempered by jitters over China’s slowing manufacturing output.

The financial, holding firms and services counters aided the main index but the day’s best performer was the mining/oil counter, which surged by 1.8 percent.

The industrial and property counters, on the other hand, ended in negative territory.

Turnover for the day amounted to P6.33 billion.

Despite the overall index gain, there were 85 advancers against 89 decliners while 39 stocks were unchanged.  Dealers said investors took advantage of the market’s drop in the last three days to increase their equities position given the upbeat outlook on Philippine stocks.

PLDT, AGI, Megaworld, Metro Pacific, BPI and AEV contributed to the PSEi’s rise.  Mining stocks Lepanto “A” and Dizon were also up in heavy trade.

Trading was brisk on Lepanto on announcement that Gold Fields had exercised its option to acquire an initial 40 percent stake in Far Southeast mining project from an offshore mining firm. While there was no action taken yet on the option to buy another 20 percent from Lepanto, Gold Fields has indicated optimism that it would pursue the project.

On the other hand, the day’s gains were curbed by the decline of BDO, Metrobank, DMCI, SM Investments, URC, SM Prime, ALI and Philex. Security Bank and PHES also dipped in heavy trade.