PH stock prices resume upward track

MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks resumed their climb above 4,200 on Wednesday, led mostly by large-cap stocks as investors’ risk appetite improved.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 45.43 points or 1.09percent to finish at 4,212.52.

News about China’s fresh monetary tightening, which in the past was a sentiment dampener, was shrugged off and instead read as a sign of confidence in favorable growth momentum across the region.

The property, services and mining/oil counters led the day’s upswing, respectively up by 3.2percent, 1.4percent and 2.3 percent, although all other counters were also up.

Value turnover amounted to P5.5 billion.

There were 89 advancers versus 46 decliners and 40 unchanged stocks.

Overnight, the closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Index was slightly down by 6.13 points to 12,393.90. Wall Street traded with caution on news that members of the Federal Reserve were split on whether it needs to tighten credit later this year to curb inflation.

Tycoon Andrew Tan’s AGI, the most actively traded stock, bounced from the previous day’s selldown (up by 0.2 percent to P11.30 each) as earlier concerns that the foreign institutional investors that had bought into the company may only flip their shares fizzled out. UBS which arranged a P9.7-billion equity deal that brought in new foreign investors said these funds were staying in AGI for the long haul.

EDC, Aboitiz Power, PLDT, DMCI Holdings, First Gen, Metro Pacific Investments, SM Investments, Filinvest Land, Lepanto Mining, ICTSI, Leisure & Resorts, Megaworld, FPH, Nickel Asia, SM Prime, Banco de Oro were likewise among the day’s gainers.

On the other hand, Metrobank and Aboitiz Equity traded in the red.