Philippine stocks bounce back

Photo taken from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—Local share prices rebounded on Wednesday, following a two-day slump on investor speculation about fresh stimulus measures by policymakers in China and the United States.

The main Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) rose 0.41 percent, or 21 points, to close at 5,207.10, tracking gains made by other major Asian indices. The broader all-shares index also rose 0.59 percent after all sectoral indices, except for the mining and oil counter, ended the day with modest gains.

“Anticipating market-friendly measures to be announced by China and the US Federal Reserve to spur their respective flagging economies as hinted at by recent economic numbers, equity prices in Asia, including the Philippines, rallied,” Accord Capital Equities said in its daily report.

“Increased investment flows as well as exports in July served encouragement to the locals,” the brokerage said.

On Wednesday, optimism was led by the service sector index, which rose 0.81 percent. Mining and oil shares, meanwhile, fell 2.97 percent to wipe out bulk of the gains it made the day before.

Market heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) was again the day’s most active stock, rising 0.94 percent to P2,798 each—its highest close this year.

Despite the gains made on Wednesday, local market sentiment remained on the negative side, Accord Capital said, with 89 decliners outnumbering 67 advancers.

Value turnover was modest with 1.27 billion shares changing hands for P4.9 billion.