MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks inched up for a fourth straight session on Tuesday as a stream of good local corporate earnings emboldened investors to pick up blue chips and selected second-liner stocks.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 12.39 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 3,898.87.
Trading was mixed across counters, however, as many investors still tempted to lock up gains whenever the index breached the 3,900 levels. Buying also focused on selected issues as the market remained wary of geopolitical risks that were pushing up global oil prices.
Despite the overall index gain, the 46 advancers were thus edged out by 78 decliners while 45 stocks were unchanged.
The holding firms, mining/oil and property counters firmed up while the financial, industrial and services counters traded in the red.
Value turnover surged to P5.38 billion from the previous day’s P3.52 billion.
“The market’s sustained surge may be attributed to positive corporate results for most firms reporting on their fourth quarter and full year 2010 operations and the anticipation of consequent dividend declarations from the bigger, blue-chip and high-profit issues,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., a dealer at Accord Capital Equities Corp.
“Over-all we can say that the underlying mood remains optimistic even as such is tempered, if not significantly dampened, by geopolitical concerns – and the inflation outlook,” he said.
Among the stocks that gained at heavy volume for the day were Aboitiz Equity Ventures, DMCI Holdings, Semirara Mining, SM Investments, SM Prime, ICTSI, EDC, Union Bank, Megaworld, Southeast Asia Cement, Ayala Land and BPI.
On the other hand, the following stocks lost ground – Aboitiz Power, Cebu Air, Metrobank, PLDT, AGI, San Miguel Corp., FPH and First Gen.
Calaycay said the four-day rush from Friday had pushed the index 125.16 points or 3.3 percent past the barrier at 3,770. “The earnings push will likely be sustained through mid-month. From thence, the market will have to look into first quarter 2011 (earnings) expectations, factoring in the impact of higher inflation for January and February and a possible tweak in (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas interest rates maybe within the first semester,” Calaycay said.
At this point, the dealer said breaks of the 3,900 mark had been difficult to sustain.
“Doing so would require fresher leads beyond earnings. At the top of this list is the resolution to the Libyan crisis, preempting the further spread of the unrest to others, or at the very least a clear path to its settlement,” he said.