PSE index rises to new year-to-date high on last minute buying

(Updated: 3:07 p.m.) The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed to a new year-to-date high as well as a 34-month high Tuesday, buoyed by last minute buying in blue chip issues. There was a strong sense of a downtrend through most of the session, with market players expecting a correction up until the last three minutes when trades were executed for blue chips Ayala Land Inc. and Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., traders and analysts said. The PSEi rose 31.45 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,775.42, registering the sixth straight trading days of closing higher. More than 1.329 billion shares valued at P4.62 billion changed hands. Losers led gained 69 to 63, with 39 issues unchanged. PSE data showed that the main index recorded its best finish in 34 months since Nov. 8, 2007 when it stood at 3,692.10. It closed at 3,788.26 Nov. 7, 2007. The index recorded an all-time high of 3,873.50 last Oct. 8, 2007. The PSEi has sustained its rally for six straight days Tuesday, gaining 216.75 points or 6.1 percent. The market is basically in a "corrective mode" with a "downward bias toward the last three minutes of trading," said a senior analyst of AB Capital Securities Inc. "At this point we can only speculate about what happened during the closing minutes of the session," said a senior trader of BDO Securities Corp. "Generally, the market is strong, but we are expecting a correction," the BDO securities trader added. —VS, GMANews.TV