Philippine shares extend rally led by mining stocks

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine stock market extended its rally today led by investors' strong interest on certain issues.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 0.23 percent or 15.90 points to 6,831.74. The broader all-share index added 0.45 percent or 19.20 points to 4,270.57.

Trading volume reached 3.26 billion shares worth P8.07 billion ($196.87 million) with 102 stocks advancing, 57 declining, and 42 unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the service sector bucked the trend and closed 0.16 percent lower. In contrast, the mining and oil sector posted the biggest gain with 1.10 percent.

"Continuation of prior session's rally prevailed on Thursday, buoyed mostly by regional support for extra monetary stimulus measure to support recovery and growth," brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said.

The Bank of Japan started its aggressive stimulus program earlier this week, lifting hope that the government might be able to spur economic growth in the country.

The plan, which has sent Asian equities rallying, is seen to inject $1.4 trillion in less than two years.

The extent of rise, however, depended on the supply pressure when the index touched the intra-day high of 6,872.

"It might have been weighed down by the latest data on slower local manufacturing growth and reduced exports for February," online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said.

The National Statistics Office reported Wednesday February's export revenues fell 15.6 percent on year to $3.74 billion the steepest fall posted in the last 14 months.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These issues include Ayala Corp. and SM Investments Corp.

Investors likewise picked Alliance Global Group, Inc., buoyed by news that its property unit Megaworld Corp. was able to raise $250 million from the sale of 10-year US bonds. The Megaworld bond sale achieved the lowest yield among any 10-year dollar corporate bond deal carved out of the Philippines and also marked the cheapest borrowing cost among all unrated issuers in Southeast Asia for such tenor.