Philippine stocks rise anew as US Federal Reserve’s stimulus buoys markets

PSE index as of 3:46 PM, September 17, 2012. Screengrab from https://pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—Most local stocks continued to rise on Monday, driving the main index close to all-time highs, as US Federal Reserve’s new monetary stimulus plan kept most regional markets buoyant.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 28.43 points, or 0.53 percent, to finish at 5,350.90 on follow-through buying from last week.

All counters were up but the segment that benefited most was the interest rate-sensitive property counter, which rose by 1.19 percent.

The index was led higher by ALI (+2.58 percent), Meralco (+2.24 percent), FGEN (+2.15 percent), MPI (+1.9 percent), BPI (+1.82 percent) and JFC (+1.58 percent). BDO, Philex, Megaworld and Globe also contributed gains to the index.

On the other hand, the index gains were tempered by the decline in the share prices of URC, Metrobank, JGS, SMC, SM, ICTSI , MWC, AP and SM Prime.