Bourse bounces back on Fed's statement

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine stock market bounced back today following the US Federal Reserves' statement that it will go slow in adjusting interest rates.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.75 percent or 57.97 points to 7,814.55, while the broader all-share index gained 0.41 percent or 18.59 points to 4,520.78.

Trading volume reached a billion shares worth P9.16 billion ($204.26 million) with 96 stocks advancing, 92 declining, and 35 were unchanged.

Two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were the industrial and the mining and oil sectors.

"The PSEI rode on the region-wide cheer," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

US stocks rallied over 1.2 percent last night following the Fed's dropping of the word "patience" in its guidance language for interest rates. Instead, it avowed adjustments will "go slow" in consideration of further improvements in the macro economic data and of pushing inflation rates towards the 2 percent target.

Major European markets closed in the green albeit Germany, the region's biggest economy and the regional benchmark, Stoxx 50, slipped.

Asia was also covered in a sea of green with only the Nikkei 225 marginally in the red as the yen firmed.

"With the Fed now out of the picture attention should squarely focus on domestic corporate earnings and Greece and Europe," Calaycay said.

The next "big" thing the market would be looking out for is the meeting of the BSP Monetary Board next week with markets guessing on whether the local regulators will mirror the action of the Fed.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These include Ayala Corp., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and SM Prime Holdings, Inc.