Stocks rise on US Fed bond buying

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine stock market managed to avoid erasing all the gains it made during the session following the US move to continue its bond-buying program.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 0.34 percent or 22.32 points to 6,661.44. The broader all-share index rose by 0.28 percent or 11.28 points to 4,053.33.

Trading volume reached 684 million shares worth 5.37 billion (123.29 million) with 79 stocks advancing, 59 declining, and 38 unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the property sector retreated.

"Investors' attention was mainly fixated on the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting results," brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said.

The FOMC announced today that it will keep its quantitative easing program "to support a stronger economic recovery."

"The Committee decided to continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion," the Fed said in a statement.

Aside from these developments, the brokerage added there were also bargain pickers who managed to seize the lull to gradually position in shares that have reverted to oversold zones.

These, 2TradeAsia.com said, pushed up the index to as high as 6, 682.23 during the session before trimming down its losses.

In the coming sessions, the brokerage said corporate earnings will likely move the index, especially if the pace of quarter-on- quarter growth improved.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those that went up were Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc., Megaworld Corp., and Alliance Global Group, Inc.