Market up by 40.14 points

The local stock barometer on Friday firmed up back to the 7,600 level, aided by month-end and quarter-end window-dressing activities.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index added 40.14 points or 0.53 percent to close at 7,622.05. Across the region, trading was muted by jitters over Greek debt negotiations.

The day’s gains were led by the holding firm counter which rose by 1.07 percent while the financial, industrial and services counters also posted gains.

On the other hand, the mining/oil and property counters slipped.

Despite the overall gain, market breadth was negative as there were more decliners (91) than advancers (84).

Holding firms SMIC and JG Summit led the index higher, both rising by 2 percent while BDO, DMCI and Jollibee gained by more than 1 percent.

PLDT, Metrobank, URC, ALI, Globe, Meralco and ICTSI also contributed to the day’s gains.

Among the non-PSEi stocks that gained in heavy volume were RRHI (+0.2 percent) and Nickel Asia (+1.66 percent).

The PSEi’s gains were curbed by the decline of MPI and Megaworld, which both slipped by more than 1 percent. SM Prime, GTCAP and AC also tumbled. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla