Index recovers as investors return to hunt for bargains

MANILA, Philippines — The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index recovered yesterday as market investors finally decided to hunt for cheap stocks.

The PSEi raillied 1.16 percent or 79.25 points to finish at 6,923.08.

Meanwhile, the broader All-Shares index rose 31.11 points or 0.73 percent to end at 4,242.24.

The sectoral indices also performed strongly except for the mining and oil index which lost 0.64 percent.

Total value turnover reached P7.052 billion. Market breadth returned to positive — 105 to 75 while 56 issues were left unchanged.

Traders said market investors cheered the news the excise tax increase on oil would be suspended.

“Fresh incentives encouraged investors to go back to the market today. News confirming the suspension of oil excise tax increase next year gave us a good shot in the arm,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director at First Grade Finance Inc.

Positive performance of certain issues also boosted the index.

“Favorable reports on Wilcon, Metrobank and ISM helped push the index back to the 6,900 level,” Del Castillo said.

He said the monetary meeting of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) today could also dictate the pace of the index in the coming days.

The BSP is expected to keep rates steady after raising rates by 150 basis points already although some analysts expect central bank to raise policy rates by 25 basis points again.