PSEi breaches 6,500 mark

The local stock index closed above 6,500 in thin trade Friday as investors across the region were perked up by dovish remarks from the European Central Bank.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 36.22 points or 0.56 percent to close at 6,500.48. For the week, the index was up a modest 0.5 percent.

Trading was mixed Friday, with the industrial and holding firm counters leading the upswing while the property counter making modest gains. On the other hand, the financial, services and mining/oil counters closed lower.

Value turnover was thin at P5.2 billion. There were 86 advancers that edged out 64 decliners.

Across the region, stocks markets were mostly higher as investors took comfort in the ECB’s assurance that it would maintain key rates at “present or lower levels for an extended period of time,” a dovish remark in contrast to the US Federal Reserve’s signal to soon taper its quantitative easing.

The day’s biggest index gainers were Energy Development Corp. (+7.83 percent) and Manila Water (+3.58 percent). Globe, Robinsons Land, DMCI and Philex were all up by more than 2 percent while Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Petron, First Gen and ICTSI gained more than 1 percent.

On the other hand, the PSEi laggers for the day were PLDT (-1.18 percent), Universal Robina (-0.76 percent) and Ayala Land (-0.5 percent).  Shares of Metrobank, Bloomberry, BDO, BPI and SM Prime also declined. Doris C. Dumlao