PHL stocks gain amid bullish Q1 earnings outlook

Philippine share prices closed the trading week mixed as the US, the world's largest economy, announced modest economic growth in the first three months of the year. The bellwether 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 40.68 points or 0.951 percent at 4,319.51 while the all shares shed 39.09 points or 1.262 percent at 3,057.64. All six sub-indices, however, closed in the green. Mining & Oil was the best performer with a 3.031-percent rise. Market breadth was positive with 76 gainers against 43 losers and 57 issues that closed unchanged. Volume traded reached 1.69 billion shares worth P3.98 billion. While the Dow Jones and tech-heavy Nasdaq ignored the slower 1.8-percent growth of the US, Asian markets were mostly trading lower on Friday with Australia's All Ordinaries and South Korea's Seoul Composite retreating by some one percent. "Optimism quickly returned to local equities, snapping out of Thursday's losses with an emphatic 41 points surge through the first half-hour. Once more, the local market bucked the regional benchmark's movement, which snapped a three-day gain on poor economic numbers," said Justino Calaycay Jr. of Accord Capital. Calaycay, however, noted that the alternating positive and negative daily breadths this week hinted at the developing mixed sentiments. "This results from a near-term bearish suggestion from the technical standpoint offset by bullish earnings outlook for the first quarter," he said. In the local market, four of the five most active stocks of the day closed higher. Telecommunications giant, the day's top traded, advanced P24 or 0.97 percent at P2,486. Lopez Holdings Corp. rose P0.26 or 4.23 percent to P6.40. DMCI Holdings Inc. declined P0.85 or 1.89 percent to P44.05. Philex Mining Corp. jumped P0.40 or 2.30 percent to P17.80. Energy Development Corp. climbed 0.01 or 0.15 percent to P6.75. -- CMA/OMG, GMA News