Philippine stock market rises on bargain hunting

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine share prices on Friday ended the week on a positive note, recovering from Monday’s historic plunge as investors bought undervalued stocks. The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 86.16 points or 4.62 percent to 1,951.09 while the all-share index jumped 46.91 points or 3.8273 percent to 1,272.57. Friday’s gain brought the main index to nearly the same level it had in Friday last week at 1,953, before the market tanked and lost some 12.3 percent on Monday's trading. Gainers routed losers 99 to 16 while 32 stocks were unchanged. Volume traded reached 1.452 billion valued at about P3.9 billion. Investors were encouraged to buy stocks at prices considered cheap. Listed companies have also bought back their shares in a bid to shore up their value. “We’re regaining some of the lost ground. There are bargain-hunters because stocks are already undervalued. Companies are also buying back their shares," said Alejandro Yu, RS Lim and Co. Inc. president. He added that with US stocks and other Asian and European markets posting gains in the last few sessions, investors are finding some stability, prompting them to buy shares. The Dow Jones industrial average overnight Thursday ended higher by 190 points despite a US government's report that the world's largest economy declined by 0.3 percent, lower than analysts' forecast of 0.5 percent. Lim also said the outlook for next week will still be determined by Wall Street’s performance Friday overnight. In the local front, all 20 of the day's top traded stocks rose as all six sub-indices also advanced between 3.3 percent and 6 percent. Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. surged P55 or 2.8351 percent to P1,995. Ayala-controlled Bank of the Philippine Islands leaped P2.50 or 6.6667 percent to P40 while parent company Ayala Corp. gained P8 or 3.5556 percent at P233. Geothermal power producer PNOC-Energy Development Corp. climbed P0.20 or 7.2727 percent to P2.95. Manila Electric Co., the country's largest electricity distributor, soared P2.50 or 4.4643 percent to P58.50. - GMANews.TV