RP stocks surge anew amid strong interest from foreign fund managers

Share prices at the Philippine Stock Exchange continued its run as the index closed higher on Friday extending yesterday's rally buoyed by the "sustained interest" of foreign investors in the Philippines. The benchmark index rose 68.16 points or 1.86 percent to 3,734.7, a new 32 month and year-to-date high. All sub-indices made a full-swing climb. Over 2.293 billion shares changed hands, with 100 issues advancing, 38 declining, and 36 remaining unchanged. Based on data from the PSE, the index’s close today, September 3 was its highest since December 10, 2007 when the index stood at 3,675.52 points (or after December 7, 2007 when the index was at 3,745.39 points). The main catalyst for Friday's run up was fund managers' continued placing of funds in the Philippines, said 2TradeAsia.com trader Mon Bata. “We are seeing general optimism in global markets which helped push our stock market higher today. Foreign investors continued to be net buyers at P1.79 billion, accounting for 44.7 percent of total turnover," PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Val Antonio B. Suarez said. Value turnover amounted to P7.06 billion. With this improvement, PSEi appears to have a potential double top resistance at the 3,850 level, an analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc. said. "Going forward, investors will be looking for data from abroad," the AB Capital analyst added. Another thing that fueled the market was the overnight's rally in Wall Street as investors took heart of the improving US housing and jobs data amid fears about the pace of the global economic recovery, said Bata. "Strong domestic fundamentals have already pushed share prices to record highs and the latest run abroad further fueled the market's latest run," pointed out First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp. analyst Martin Santos. —JE/OMG, GMANews.TV