Market firms up

The local stock barometer on Thursday firmed up as investors welcomed the US Federal Reserve’s indication to delay further interest rate increases.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 25.95 points or 0.39 percent to close at 6,663.43, drawing strength from US Fed chair Janet Yellen’s testimony before the US Congress.

Yellen said the “tightening financial conditions and uncertainty over China’s economic health are both risks to the US recovery, however, it is unlikely that the Fed would reverse the interest rate tightening cycle it began in December.” However, Yellen did suggest that such risks could delay plans for raising short-term interest rates.

The local market took this as a positive indicator as the Fed would take further consideration before raising rates again when it meets in March,” said Regina Capital managing director Luis Gerardo Limlingan.

Locally, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas— as expected—kept its monetary settings unchanged in its first policy meeting for 2016.

The local market was led higher by the mining/oil counter which rose by 4.17 percent.  All other counters were up albeit at a modest pace.

Value turnover for the day hit P4.83 billion. There were 111 advancers, 64 decliners while 30 stocks were unchanged.

Petron led the PSEi higher with its 6.12 percent gain while SM Prime rose by 3.11 percent.  Doris Dumlao-Abadilla