Stocks extend rally

Local share prices extended its rally to a sixth day Friday, bucking the trend across the region and on Wall Street.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 0.46 percent or 18.9 points to close at 4,153.4 on buying of select blue-chip shares.

Shares of port developer ICTSI rose 5.9 percent to P52 apiece. It was the day’s most actively traded blue-chip issue. Shares of IPVG Corp., a former technology firm undergoing a corporate restructuring program, rose 27.5 percent to close at P3.29, making it the day’s top gainer.

Gainers also included Philex Mining Corp., which rose 4.24 percent, and mining firm Semirara, which gained 3.9 percent.

All subindices, except for holding firms, ended the week in the green. The rally was led by the services sector, which rose 1.09 percent. The day had 79 advancers as against 59 decliners while 41 issues closed unchanged.

Online brokerage firm AB Capital attributed the rally to the “bounce-back of stocks which have been oversold and undervalued.”

The local market’s rally came despite the selloff in US and European markets the night before. The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 slipped 0.35 percent and 0.30 percent, respectively, while the Nasdaq rose 0.60 percent. Paolo G. Montecillo