PSEi resumes upswing

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock index swung back to positive territory on Wednesday after three days of profit-taking in the stock market, still driven by optimism about local corporate earnings.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 27.05 points or 0.43 percent to close at 6,322.60 even as regional markets traded with  mixed sentiment.

“I think we’re seeing a healthy and steady rise in the market,” said Gus Cosio, president of First Metro Asset Management Inc. “Stock selection remains to be key.”

The day’s upswing was led by the industrial and holding firm counters, both of which gained by over 1 percent. On the other hand, the services, mining/oil and property counters declined.

Turnover amounted to P8.07 billion. Despite the overall index gain, market breadth was negative as 82 decliners edged out 80 advancers while 43 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by AGI (+3.83 percent) and URC (+2.7 percent) while ICTSI, AP and FGEN all rose by over 1 percent.

Outside of the PSEi, a notable gainer for the day was EVER (+48.72 percent) as a block sale on the stock fueled backdoor-listing speculations. However, EVER told the PSE it was not aware of any reason behind this extraordinary rise.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s gains were tempered by the profit-taking on Megaworld (-1.44 percent) while shares of SM Prime, JGS, PLDT, Metrobank, Jollibee, MPI, AC, BDO and ALI also declined.

“The PSEi has been posting higher lows since mid-December and just recently (this February) broke out of a major downtrend that began in May 2013 amid positive full-year 2013 earnings and 2014 guidance, as well as economic outlook. News reports have recently indicated a shift in focus back to Philippine stocks amid attractive valuations,” local stock brokerage DA Market Securities said.