Bargain-hunting continues to lift stocks

Most local stocks firmed up for a second straight session Friday, allowing the main index to climb back to 6,500 even as jitters over Cyprus and growth in the eurozone weighed down most markets in the region.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 45.73 points or 0.71 percent to close at 6,518.71 as investors sifted through recently battered equities.

For the week, the index lost 135.95 points or 2 percent, with the losses trimmed in the last two trading days. The index marked a record high at 6,867.10 on March 11 before the recent pullback.

The financial and mining/oil counters led yesterday’s gains while the industrial counter was the only sub-index to remain in the red.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.32 billion. There were 89 advancers that edged out 74 decliners while 31 stocks were unchanged.

The main index was led by the gains of DMCI (+5.17 percent), BDO (+4.02 percent), Bloomberry (+3.82 percent), Semirara (+2.84 percent), ICTSI (+2.75 percent) and JG Summit (+2.63 percent). Investors also picked up shares of Metro Pacific Investments, Globe Telecom, Alliance Global Inc. and Robinsons Land.

On the other hand, investors sold down shares of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Jollibee, SMC, Aboitiz Power, SM Prime, Megaworld, PLDT, Meralco and Universal Robina. Doris C. Dumlao