Stocks rebound on Wall St rally

MANILA, Philippines - The local stock index rebounded from a sharp decline it suffered Wednesday as an overnight Wall St. rally brought back investor confidence which have been on a depressed state the previous days.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 0.91 percent or 63.07 points at 7,029.28 while the broader All Shares index climbed 0.44 percent or 18.16 points to end at 4,150.56.

Local stocks together with other equities in the region finally got its much-awaited relief yesterday following the Federal Reserve’s seemingly positive outlook on the US economy.

“Wall Street’s overnight rally buoyed sentiment in local equities, after the Fed said it will not increase interest rates yet, at least in the next couple of meetings,” said Jason Escartin, investment analyst at F. Yap Securities.

All major indexes in Wall St. gained by more than 1.50 percent, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 picking up 2.12 and 2.04 percent, respectively.

Locally, all counters were healthy except for mining and oil firms which dipped 0.78 percent or 119.26 points.

Holding firms led the counters which ended in the green as it gained 0.87 percent or 52.50 points.

Decliners, however, continued to dominate advancers, 121 to 68, while 37 shares were unchanged.

Value turnover declined to P10.91 billion from P11.37 billion the previous day.