Philippine stocks close in on 5,800 mark

MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks gained for a third session on Thursday, re-testing the 5,800 mark in intraday trade, in line with the seasonal Santa Claus or yearend rally.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 45.35 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 5,797.74.

Dealers said the upswing was partly fueled by yearend window-dressing ahead of the forthcoming holidays.

The day’s upswing was led by the holding firm (1.46 percent) and property counters (+2.03 percent).  On the other hand, services and mining/oil ended in negative territory.

Value turnover amounted to P9.67 billion, bloated by block transactions on some blue chips. Despite the overall index gain, the advancers (77) were outnumbered by the decliners (91).

The biggest index gainers were ALI (+4.05 percent), AC (+3.92 percent), SMIC (+2.76 percent), ICTSI (+2.64 percent), Semirara (+2.31 percent), RLC (+2.17 percent), URC (+2.06 percent), AGI (+1.48 percent) and SM Prime (+1.25 percent).

Among the non-index stocks, a notable outperformer was Vivant (+50 percent), which was the fifth most actively traded stock for the day.