Stocks bounce back on window dressing

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market rebounded yesterday following a poor performance on Monday, inching up on the back of yearend window-dressing activities.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.66 percent or 44.25 points to finish the session at 6,724.82.

Also closing in the positive territory was the broader All Shares index, which improved by 0.23 percent or 8.69 points to 3,785.80.

“The PSEi went up on possible window-dressing activities before the accounting yearend and after the slightly lower foreign exchange rate at 57.90 levels for most of the trading day,” RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said.

Net value turnover for the day reached P5.30 billion.

All sectors were in the green except for financials, which slipped by 0.40 percent.

Mining & oil and holding firms performed strongly, jumping by 1.32 percent and 1.08 percent, respectively.

However, decliners came out on top, edging out advancers, 97 to 88, while 59 issues were unchanged.

Among index members, Jollibee Foods posted the biggest gain at 3.85 percent, while ACEN lost the most with 4.64 percent.

BDO was the top traded company, declining by 0.65 percent to P152 per share, followed by ICTSI, which grew by 2.48 percent to P404.80.

Shares were mostly higher yesterday in Asia as Chinese stocks were buoyed by an apparent shift in Beijing toward easier credit and other forms of stimulus for the sluggish economy.

Market superstar Nvidia’s shares fell 0.6 percent in afterhours trading, extending a 2.6 percent loss after China said it was investigating the company over suspected violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws.