Index snaps 4-day skid on Wall St rally

MANILA, Philippines - Local stocks snapped a four-day skid due to Wall St.’s upbeat performance.

The Philippine Stock Exchange rebounded 0.49 percent or 32.10 points to 6,636.45, while the broader all shares index rose 0.50 percent or 19.84 points to 4,010.04.

“We snapped a four-day decline on the strong gains from Wall Street overnight,” said Abbygayle M. Estrella, an analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc.

On Monday, US stocks were buoyed by the merger and acquisition (M&A) news, specifically that of American drugmaker Pfizer’s bid to take over AstraZeneca Plc.

The Dow Jones industrial average improved 0.53 percent or 87.28 points to end at 16,448.74, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.32 percent or 6.03 points to 1,869.43.

“Somewhat growing tired and weary of poring over recent risk factors and discounting these into share prices, markets turned focus on corporates particularly on M&A activity,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., analyst at Accord Capital Equities Corp.

“In turn, this gave local investors, as well as in the broader Asian region reason to snap out of an extended decline,” Calaycay added.

Locally, all counters were in the green, led by property firms that recovered 0.77 percent or 19.85 points to close at 2,580.76 while industrial firms added 0.76 percent or 75.21 points to end at 9,993.80.

Advancers dominated decliners, 104 to 63, while 50 stocks did not change. However, turnover value eased to P6.47 billion from P7.47 billion on Monday.

Most active issues ended higher, led by top-traded Ayala Corp. (+0.73 percent) while Manila Electric Corp. (+3.17 percent), DMCI Holdings Inc. (+2.35 percent) and Bloomberry Resorts Corp. (+2.88 percent) rallied yesterday. Third most active Universal Robina Corp. (-0.28 percent) bucked the trend.