Partial US-China trade deal lifts local stocks

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market recovered yesterday, mostly on the back of positive external developments.

These include positive earnings anticipation in the US which lifted Wall Street and improved sentiment on the US-China trade negotiations, which sent most Asian markets higher. The two superpowers are reportedly trying to hammer out a partial trade deal.

Thus, the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) climbed above the 7,900 mark and finished strong at 7,955.24, up 64.11 points or 0.81 percent.

The broader All Shares gauge rose 30.36 points, or 0.63 percent, to finish at 4,784.11.

The sectoral gauges, meanwhile, were also mostly up on strong trades. The mining and oil and holding firms index led the gainers, while only the industrial index slipped to red territory.

Total value turnover reached P6.044 billion.

However, market breadth was negative, 94 to 85, while 61 issues were unchanged.

Nevertheless, foreign buying returned to the market at P3.1 billion versus foreign selling at P3 billion for a net foreign buying of P157 million.

Among yesterday’s active stocks were GT Capital Holdings Inc., which rose 1.73 percent, JG Summit Holdings Inc., which went up 2.73 percent, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which finished 1.84 percent and Ayala-led BPI which was up 2.20 percent.

Decliners included Robinsons Retail which was down 0.78 percent, Ayala Land Inc. which slipped 0.10 percent and International Container Terminal Inc. which lost 0.57 percent.