Stocks post mild gains on bargain-hunting

Local stocks staged a mild rally yesterday as investors picked on oversold blue chips, cutting short a four-day downturn that brought the market to an 18-month low.

The 30-company composite index inched up 4.82 points or 0.32 percent to close at 1,523.43, defying the general downtrend in overseas bourses, although not enough to proclaim that market sentiment -- still weighted down by the hostilities in Mindanao -- has vastly improved.

Despite the slight gain, retreating issues still outnumbered gainers, 45 to 37, while 44 stocks were unchanged.

Trading was likewise thin, with 2.625 billion shares changing hands for a combined value of P818.333 million. Over the past two weeks, value turnover has averaged at a precarious level of less than P1 billion, reflecting the inactivity of big institutional funds and foreign portfolio players.

The uptick, however, could be traced to a buying spree and long-term positioning on index-linked solid stocks, where bulk of trade has been concentrated over the past three weeks, keeping the speculators with their eyes on second-liners at bay.

San Miguel, PLDT, Benpres Holdings and Ayala Land paced the blue chips in terms of gains after languishing in the red for sometime, PLDT advanced P15 to P780, SMC-B went up P1 to P51.50, BPC added 25 centavos to P4.80, and ALI closed 10 centavos more to P6.

Other heavyweight stocks ended unchanged or lower. Meralco-B and Ayala Corp. were unchanged at P69 and P8.40, respectively, while Metrobank and SM Prime lost around.

Controversial gaiming firm BW Resources, which reported losses in the first quarter, was likewise an active stock, although its share price was unchanged at P4.05, BW kept on bleeding during the first quarter with P2.915 million in losses, despite the fold-in of the Bingo Online operations. In 1999, the most active stock of the year ended at a net loss of P10.844 million.

Yuchengco-controlled Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. said it will ride on the information technology (IT) bandwagon with the establishment of a joint venture firm that will provide outsourcing and systems integration services to local and international clients.

RCBC will set up a company together with US-based IT solutions firm Complete Business Solutions Inc. (CBSI) and Bank of America International Investment Corp. to provide a full range of IT services outsourced from clients. These include consulting and solutions development, systems development, software and applications development, systems integration, networking solutions, data center operations and facilities management.