Philippines stocks buck Wall St weakness

MANILA, Philippines - The local benchmark index climbed its way back above the 7,000 level yesterday despite the slump in global markets.

The PSEi picked up 0.53 percent or 37.39 points to close on a positive note for the second straight day at 7,028.58, while broader all shares index likewise gained 0.12 percent or 4.80 points to finish at 4,163.09.

”Market surprisingly rebounded despite the bearish market. However, the market remains very volatile,”said Alex Tiu, analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc.

Tiu said the positive growth of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in August released yesterday helped push the market up despite a slow morning trading.

The local market has also bucked downtrends abroad, especially in the US market where all three indexes in Wall Street ended in the red, led by the Dow which lost 1.06 percent or 173.45 points.

Locally, four counters were in the green while only two finished in the negative territory. Services firms led those in the green as it jumped 1.37 percent while mining and oil firms took the biggest drop at 1.43 percent.

Market breadth was negative as decliners dominated advancers, 111 to 54, while 50 stocks did not change. Turnover value fell to P8.09 billion from P12.52 billion the previous day.