Stocks rally after Japan policy boost

MANILA, Philippines – Local stocks rose modestly on Monday, helped by the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) surprise move to adopt negative interest rates.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed up 13.74 or 0.21 percent at 6,701.36.

A total of 705.76 million shares valued at P8.56 billion changed hands.

 Most of the counters closed in positive territory with the mining and oil index posting the biggest gains.

The mining and oil index soared 159.04 points or 1.77 percent while the financials index jumped 1.52 percent.

The holding firms index declined by 17.22 points or 0.27 percent, while the services counter fell 4.33 points or 0.28 percent.

 Luis Limlingan, managing director of Regina Capital, said while the BOJ’s surprise introduction of negative interest rates was a welcome development, some investors were cautious ahead of China factory and service sector activity surveys.

“While the Bank of Japan’s move was meaningful and unexpected by some, the negative counterbalance is that China PMI numbers came short of expectations once again and  oil exporting nations and producers are going to see extremely tough times in 2016,” he said.

 Limlingan said the US is now halfway through earnings season for the fourth quarter and results have not been pretty with few exceptions.