Philippine stocks hit new record high

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index set a new record high on Monday as investors cheered a US debt deal and a robust stream of local second-quarter corporate earnings.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index surged 46.90 points, or 1.04 percent, to 4,550.53. The PSEi has now gained 8.32 percent, or 349.39 points, since the start of the year.

“Asian markets, including the Philippines, breathed a sigh of relief after the announcement of a debt deal in the US. We hope this positive trend continues to fuel confidence in the stock market,” PSE president Hans Sicat said.

Other markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia and Japan were also trading higher as of midday on Monday.

On the eve of the August 2 deadline to avert a debt default, President Obama and US congressional leaders announced agreement on emergency legislation to raise the US debt ceiling, removing much of the overhang on global financial markets. The agreement will reduce Federal spending by $2.2 trillion over a decade, which Democrats thought as too steep but too modest for the Republicans.

Locally, all counters were up, but the outperformer was still the mining/oil sub-index, which rallied 2.41 percent. The financial, holding firm and property counters were all up more than 1 percent.

Value turnover amounted to P5.06 billion. The local bourse attracted P186 million in net foreign buying for the day.

There were 109 advancers, which overwhelmed 39 decliners, while 38 stocks were unchanged.

Based on the latest PSE data, total market capitalization year to date stood at P9.2 trillion, up 3.75 percent from the P8.87 trillion at end-2010.