Index climbs above 7,000-pt level

MANILA, Philippines - Local share prices resumed their climb above the 7,000 -point level yesterday, boosted largely by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) move to cut anew the rates on its special deposit ac- counts (SDAs).

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went up 29.98 points or 0.43 percent to close at 7,025.44. Trading volume stood at 1.3 billion as P1.7 billion changed hands.

On Thursday, the BSP cut yields on SDAs by another 50 basis points across all tenors down to two percent to flush out idle money in its vaults, encouraging banks to lend more and arresting the peso’s appreciation against the dollar. The central bank kept its overnight borrowing and lending rates steady at 3.5 percent and 5.5 per- cent, respectively.

Leading the market’s ascent was the services counter, which rallied 0.93 percent. Advancers led decliners, 97 to 69, while 46 issues were unchanged. A total of 5.88 billion stocks worth P10.23 billion changed hands.

Actively traded stocks were Melco Philip- pines, Alliance Global, PLDT, Ayala Land and Alcorn. Top gainers were Boulevard Holdings, Globalport and Splash, while the biggest los- ers were iRipple, Filipino Fund and Phoenix Petroleum.

“The market benefited from the Bangko Sentral’s SDA cuts as funds made its way to the local equities market,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director at First Grade Finance Inc.