(UPDATE) Bargain hunting lifts bourse

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The stock market bounced back today mainly due to bargain hunting.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.43 percent, or 29.41 points, to 6,894.23, while the broader all-share index added 0.27 percent, or 11.13 points, to 4,123.69.

Trading volume reached 1.17 billion shares worth P7.14 billion ($164.45 million) with 106 stocks declining, 68 advancing, and 50 unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the industrial sector bucked the trend.

The market was basically flat week-on-week, gaining only 4.68 points, although there was a slight improvement on the average daily turnover.

"As the Ghost Month has officially started, we expect the market to continue moving sideways, although now at a wider trading band as the second quarter corporate earnings reports are already starting to pour in," Joyce Anne Ramos of AB Capital Securities, Inc. said in her daily stock market comment.

Ramos said investors should expect to see slightly increased volume as market participants take their positions, taking into account the surge of released data.

"As previously mentioned in the earlier reports, the release of the second quarter corporate earnings will guide the market participants on whether to push the market back to and past the 7, 000 level or not," she said.

Ramos said the index failed to breach or remain at the 7,000 level due to valuation concerns. Moreover, on a technical basis, the index has not moved much and remained below the 6,900 level.

"We reiterate our advise for investors to continue hunting for bargain stocks, taking cautious positions, and range trading," she said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those sold down were SM Investments Corp., Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc., and GT Capital Holdings, Inc.