Higher GDP growth boosts stock market

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine stock market cheered the higher-than-expected economic growth for the third quarter as the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) finished at 6,188.22, up by 33.19 points or 0.54 percent.

Likewise, the broader All Shares index gained 11.87 points or 0.36 percent to close at 3,329.38.

Total value turnover reached P4.6 billion. Market breadth, however, was negative, 96 to 85, while 46 issues were unchanged.

Mikhail Plopenio of Philstocks Financial said investors cheered the Philippine economic for the third quarter which expanded by 5.9 percent, higher than last quarter’s 4.3 percent growth.

“Positive sentiment, already backed by the decline in our inflation last October and the strengthening of our local currency, received a further boost from the latest GDP print. As a result, the bourse traded in the green territory for the whole session, even breaching the 6,200 level intraday before returning below it,” he said.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets also rallied even as global investors again sold off the troubled mainland Chinese property sector.

China’s troubled property sector is being closely watched after most major stocks rallied one day earlier following a Reuters report that Ping An Insurance Group had been asked by the Chinese authorities to take a controlling stake in Country Garden Holdings.

A spokesperson for Ping An said the company had not been approached by the government and denied the Reuters report that cited four sources familiar with the plan.

“I think for equities investors, they are still shying away from Chinese property because there are so many unknowns,” said Jason Lui, BNP Paribas’s Head of APAC Equity & Derivative Strategy.

“It’s difficult to ask investors to go back to pre-property downturn days, fundamentally property is going to play a very different role in Chinese economic development going forward.

“Property needs to stop being a drag on GDP and sentiment so investors can move on to the real growth drivers.”

Chinese inflation figures for October published on Thursday showed a 0.1 percent decline compared to September and a 0.2 percent fall from one year, according to official statistics.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.10 percent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.08 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.12 percent.