PH stock prices go up amid bargain hunting

MANILA, Philippines—Local stock prices rose on Thursday as investors picked up more bargains in the stock market.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 31.28 points or 0.744 percent to finish at 4,234.96, extending the slim gain achieved on Wednesday.

All counters closed in positive territory but those for holding firms, property and mining/oil led the day’s upswing, rising by 1 percent, 1.3 percent and 1.28 percent, respectively.

Turnover amounted to P4.13 billion.

There were 79 advancers as against 61 decliners while 38 stocks were unchanged.

Among the actively traded stocks that gained were Lopez Holdings (formerly Benpres), ICTSI, AGI, EDC, DMCI, PSE, Cebu Air, SM Investments, Lepanto Mining, Jollibee, Banco de Oro and Nickel Asia.

PSE, for its part, declared a 100 percent stock dividend to all stockholders as of record date May 30 this year payable on June 8.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s upswing was tempered by the decline by PLDT, Aboitiz Power and Metrobank. Other decliners for the day were PNB, Vista Land and Leisure & Resorts on profit-taking.