Stocks advance anew,  track gains on Wall St

MANILA, Philippines — Share prices rose anew after Wall Street benchmarks swept higher, extending their longest rally in a year and a half.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) finished at 6,508.34, up by 46.92 points or 0.73 percent, while the broader All Shares index gained 23.04 points or 0.67 percent to end at 3467.11. Total value turnover swelled to P53.5 billion. Market breadth was positive, 96 to 81, while 43 issues were unchanged.

Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said local shares were bought on bets that rate hikes will be coming to an end after the US Federal Reserve an_nounced a pause in its rate hike cycle.

He said bargain hunting and the FTSE rebalancing also pushed the market up, as well as the faster in_crease in remittances from overseas Filipinos in April.

Elsewhere in Asia, shares logged moderate gains as US economic data stoked expectations that the

Fed is near the end of its rate-hike campaign.

“If US labor markets are finally starting to soften, this lends some credibility to the Fed’s decision to

pause,” said Ryan Brandham, head of global capital markets, North America at Validus Risk Management.

The slew of data helped firm up bets that the Fed would not follow through with more rate hikes as the

central bank hinted on Wednesday when it left interest rates unchanged.

Markets are now pricing in 69 percent chance of the US central bank raising its interest rate by 25 basis points next month, according to CME FedWatch tool.

In China, stock markets extended gains after the central bank cut the borrowing cost of its medium-term policy loans on Thursday for the first time in 10 months to aid a shaky economic recovery. Investors are hoping more stimulus is on the horizon.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index closed at a 33-year high after the Bank of Japan wrapped up a policy meet_ing by keeping its ultra-lax monetary stance unchanged, as expected. It is a standout among central banks, most of which have sought to rein in infla_tion by raising interest rates.

The key Japanese rate has stayed at minus 0.1 percent for a decade and policymakers have indicated they are not convinced that current inflation, which finally has surpassed the BOJ’s target of about two percent, will be sustained.