Stocks rise on euro zone deal

Local shares rose sharply on Friday—the last trading day before the four-day All Saints’ Day weekend—on the back of a Wall Street rally triggered by the approval of a European Union rescue plan for fiscal crisis-ridden Greece.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended at 4,333.72, higher by 66.22 points or 1.55 percent.

“Sentiment has been positive since reports emerged a few days ago that the EU would step in to help fix Greece’s problems,” a trader said. “What we saw today was follow-through buying.”

All sectoral indices ended in the green, led by the financial sector, which shot up by 3 percent, as banks were seen as some of the biggest beneficiaries of the EU’s move to avert a sovereign debt crisis. Daxim L. Lucas