Bourse bucks regional trend, breaches 6,600 level

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The stock market bucked regional trend and breached the 6,600 mark today.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index added 0.81 percent, or 53.20 points, to 6,614.40, while the broader all-share index rose by 0.51 percent, or 20.13 points, to 3,969.07.

Trading volume reached 726.12 million shares worth P6.95 billion ($154.46 million) with 87 stocks advancing, 77 declining, and 53 were unchanged.

"As we had pointed to in Monday's report, the market is still in a positive incline," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

The buying momentum started last week on the back of a positive outlook on the local economy.

Another significant development in the local equities is the initial public offering of DoubleDragon Properties Inc. which debuted on the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

Shares of the property firm was up by 50 percent, hitting the local equities' maximum gain for the day.

"Recent experience suggests strong buying opportunities occur at drops ranging from 2.5 percent to 5 percent on the aggregate. This is a good, decent guidepost for investors over the short-run, " Calaycay said.

While he expects the local index to test and even surpass the 6, 700-mark soon enough, Calaycay said investors should be wary of " certain events" globally may introduce some "negative volatility" to prices.

"These are the opportunities investors must learn to take advantage of, particularly as the underlying assumptions and premises for the market's continuing advance remain valid and unaltered," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These include Ayala Corp., the Bank of Philippine Islands, and SM Prime Holdings, Inc.