Philippine stocks continue rally over news of US pump-priming moves

PSE index as of June 20, 2012 03:46:00 PM

MANILA, Philippines—Local share prices continued to rise on Wednesday, in line with the rest of the region, on hopes that the US Federal Reserve would announce fresh pump-priming moves at its meeting this week.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) rose 1.28 percent or 64.85 points to 5,146.460, the highest since the middle of May as the US monetary authority began its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The broader all-shares index rose 0.9 percent as all sectoral indices posted gains at the end of trading. The rally was led by property shares, one of the biggest beneficiaries of lower interest rates.

Property shares rose 1.93 percent with developer Megaworld Corp. up 2.97 percent. Megaworld’s parent firm Alliance Global Group Inc. was up 2.22 percent.

The market’s 103 advancers outnumbered 52 decliners by nearly two to one, while 37 stocks were unchanged. Trading volume was at 5.18 billion shares valued at P6.07 billion.

A local broker said that if investor sentiment would hold until Friday, it could mean the end of the market’s consolidation phase and the start of better days for the market.

“The market has been consolidating for about two months. I think that’s a long enough time,” said Joseph Roxas of Eagle Equities. “If it stays above the 5,100 level until Friday, I think that’s a sign that we are in for a good rally,” he predicted.