(UPDATED) RP composite index recovers from five-day drop

Local share prices on Wednesday snapped five straight sessions of decline, buoyed by Wall Street’s rise overnight and ignoring election-related political jitters. The Philippine Stock Exchange index soared by 1.81 percent or 56.97 points to 3,204.47, with subindices rising across the board and only one of the 20 most actively traded stocks dropping. Harry Liu, president of Summit Securities, Inc., said the composite index was hanging on the outcome of the elections. "If elections are perceived to be honest and credible, then we won’t have a problem. We will see a continued upward trend especially as global markets improve in the third and fourth quarter," he said in an interview. If the opposite happens, the index could break the major support level of 2,750 to 2,950 and change its direction downwards, he added. "Anything higher than 3,300 points is a bit overbought so the market, especially due to fundamental concerns about the elections, had gone through a correction," Liu said. He added that pending the election outcome, the stock market would go through a series of corrections in the short and medium terms. He also said the index had been tracking the Dow Jones industrial average, which at more than 11,000 points, is already overheating. Wall Street resumed its advance on Tuesday following positive first-quarter profit reports. The Dow rose by 25 points for its eighth gain in nine days to 11,117.06. Investors set aside some concerns about the government's fraud charges against the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and looked at corporate earnings. On the local front, volume turnover reached 2.72 billion stocks worth P3.08 billion. Gainers beat losers 82 to 24, while 61 stocks were unchanged. Holding firms went up by 3.34 percent or 65.31 points to 2,020.01, while industrial stocks gained 2.21 percent or 105.38 points to 4,882.26. Property companies also advanced by 1.55 percent or 17.89 points to 1,169.14, while the financial index closed 1.23 percent or 8.42 points higher at 692.5. Services likewise added 0.86 percent or 12.54 points to 1,462.36, while mining and oil stocks inched up by 0.47 percent or 43.16 points to 9,195.92. Of the 20 most active stocks, only Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. slid — by 50 centavos to P41, while Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and SM Primce Holdings, Inc. were steady at P2,440 and P9.70, respectively. Ayala Corp. gained P12.50 to P320, while Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. advanced by a peso to P51.50. First Philippine Holdings Corp. gained P1.50 to close at P56.50, while International Container Terminal Services, Inc. finished P2.50 higher at P27. — Norman P. Aquino, GMANews.TV