PSEi firms up below 7,800

THE LOCAL stock barometer firmed up slightly on Tuesday, retesting 7,800 in intra-day trade, as investors took heart from upbeat trading in Wall Street.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index added 2.59 points or 0.03 percent to close at 7,776.51. The 155.93-point overnight gain by the closely tracked Dow Jones Industrial index brought some comfort to investors.

The main index hit as high as 7,809.52 in intra-day trade before closing at the day’s low.

The PSEi was backed by modest gains posted by the financial, holding firm and mining/oil counters while the industrial, services and property counters ended in the red.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.6 billion. Market breadth was positive as there were 102 advancers which edged out 68 decliners while 50 stocks were unchanged.

GTCAP led the PSEi higher, rising by 3.79 percent. FGEN and Semirara also perked up the PSEi, both rising by over 2 percent. DMCI, AGI and BDO likewise gained by over 1 percent.

Metrobank, EDC, Jollibee and Globe also firmed up.

Outside of PSEi stocks, Puregold (+2.8 percent) was a notable gainer.

On the other hand, index heavyweight PLDT was flat after posting its 2014 results. PLDT reported a 3 percent decline in core profit to P37.4 billion this year, which is seen to ease further to P35 billion this 2015.

Bloomberry was likewise down by 2.08 percent while URC and MPI both fell by over 1 percent. Shares of AC, Megaworld and ALI also eased.