Philippine stock market rallies

The Philippine Stock Exchange

MANILA, Philippines – Local stocks snapped out of a two-day slump on heavy trade Friday.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index recouped 15.62 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 4,391.46.

All counters ended in positive territory except for holding firms whose sub-index was still in the red.

There were 81 advancers against 59 decliners while 37 stocks were unchanged.

Turnover was heavy at P9.96 billion, buoyed by an equity transaction on Metro Pacific Investment.

Shares of Metro Pacific Investment, the day’s most actively traded stock, fell following a private placement via a top-up offering equivalent to 1.5 billion shares priced at P3.57 per share.

On the other hand, San Miguel Corp. still led the day’s gainers. The index stocks that lifted the upswing were FPH, EDC, Metrobank, SM Investments, First Gen, SM Prime, Megaworld, AGI, PLDT, Aboitiz Power and Lepanto “A” (open only to local investors).  Non-index stocks Atlas, Empire East and Manila Water also surged in active trade.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Index rallied by 93.47 points or 0.74 percent to 12,719.49.

This developed after US retailers posted their best June sales results since 1999 as fair weather and attractive discounts shored up consumer spending.  At the same time, the number of people who made first-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to a seven-week low of 418,000 – a sign that layoffs were declining.