Wall St rally pushes index to 8-month high

MANILA, Philippines - The slew of local positive corporate news and the uptick in Wall St. allowed the bellwether index to post an eight-month high yesterday.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) improved 0.78 percent or 51.40 points to 6,638.89, its highest closing since ending at 6,656.71 on Aug. 14, 2013. The broader All Shares index gained 0.84 percent or 33.34 points to 3,992.65.

Nisha S. Alicer, research strategist at DA Market Securities, attributed the PSEi’s climb to the continued rally in US markets.

Wall St. finished in the green on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve’s minutes showed cautiousness in jacking up interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 1.11 percent or 181.04 points to 16,437.18 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.09 percent or 20.22 points to 1,872.18.

Alicer said the market was also buoyed by encouraging corporate updates such as the strong income report of Megaworld Corp., robust loan growth outlook for Bank of the Philippine Islands, and expansion plans of Ayala Land Inc. and International Container Terminal Services Inc.

Locally, all counters were in positive territory, led by mining and oil that jumped 1.76 percent or 260.37 points to 15,016.64 while financial firms advanced 1.36 percent or 21.30 points to 1,585.38.

Turnover value reached P10.52 billion from P7.56 billion on Tuesday. Financial markets were closed yesterday due to the Araw ng Kagitingan holiday.

Advancers dominated decliners, 126 to 57, while 34 stocks did not change.