Stocks recover on bargain hunting

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The stock market today regained some of the losses it had suffered the previous day on the back of bargain hunting.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.40 percent, or 29.04 points, to 7,294.38, while the broader all-share index gained by 0.40 percent, or 16.93 points, to 4,296.90.

Trading volume reached 5.28 billion shares worth P8.66 billion ($192.96 million) with 106 stocks advancing, 76 declining, and 49 unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the property sector bucked the trend.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said the overall equations have changed following the disappointing gross domestic product report of the government.

The government reported that the country's economy grew by only 5.3 percent. This is lower than the 6.4 percent reported in the second quarter and the 7 percent in the same quarter last year.

"How investors will recover from this shock will manifest in the month's closing trades," Calaycay said.

"The current growth pace puts the index somewhere between 6,840 and 6,870. Fortunately, the PSEI's correlation with GDP is lower than it is with inflation and interest rates, and slower growth is favorable to a dovish bias in the latter," he added.

Following Thursday's bloodbath, the index managed to close the week with a minimal gain of 0.25 percent even after closing below the 7,300 level twice this week.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These include Ayala Corp., Megaworld Corp., and SM Investments Corp.