Bargain hunters dominate ahead of Fed meet

MANILA, Philippines - The main composite index managed to stay above the 7,000 level as investors gobbled up bargain stocks ahead of the US Fed meeting.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 4.91 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 7,093.02.

Similarly, the broader All-Shares index climbed 5.64 percent points, or 0.14 percent, to close at 4,046.26.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities said some investors went for bargain stocks ahead of the upcoming meeting of the US Federal Reserve.

Value turnover reached the P7 billion level, hitting P7.068 billion as advancers outnumbered decliners, 101 to 63, while 39 stocks were unchanged during yesterday’s session.

Yesterday’s best performers include Lopez-led Energy Dev’t Corp., which rose 3.51 percent to close at P5.90. Similarly, Ayala Corp. rose 1.60 percent or 12.000 points to close at P761 per share.

Meanwhile, global share markets were also up yesterday, albeit in thin volume, and short-term US bond yields held near 4 1/2-year highs as investors braced for the possibility of the first interest rate hike in the United States in almost a decade.

A late five percent surge in Chinese stocks had helped Asia’s bourses finish more than 2 percent higher as early gains of 0.7 to 1.3 percent for London’s FTSE, Frankfurt’s DAX and Paris’s CAC 40 got Europe of to a solid day too.