RP stocks advance on postive sentiments abroad

Philippine stocks advanced for the fourth straight day on Thursday as the sentiments of investors and traders were boosted by the growth in the service industry in the US. The Philippine Stock Exchange index went up 17.52 points or 0.5 percent to 3,521.10. The property sector continued to gain by 2.44 percent while the financial and industrial sectors were slightly on the red. There were 1.337 billion shares valued at about P3.960 billion were traded. Advancers outpaced decliners 68 to 42 while there were 45 stocks unchanged. The US Institute for Supply Management's index of non-manufacturing businesses, which covers about 90 percent of the world's biggest economy, increased to 54.3 in July from 53.8 in June. Readings above 50 signal expansion and economists predicted a drop to 53. Amid some positive developments abroad, the Philippine economy "still remains strong as it's been fueled by local activities," said Prince Yeung, an analyst of AB Capital Securities Inc. Yeung said the market is the mood to show even better data as corporate earnings have proven to be very strong. "With the earnings season upon us, we may see more activity in the market especially on stocks which strongly performed in the past periods," he added. —JE, GMANews.TV