PHL stocks snap losing streak

Philippine share prices snapped a four-day losing streak on Monday, boosted by positive developments overseas. The bellwether 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 38.08 points or 0.90 percent to 4,257.15 while the all shares climbed 25.22 points or 0.85 percent to 2,984.43. Losers, however, edged out gainers, 70 to 72, while 40 stocks closed unchanged. Except for Property, which declined 0.43 percent, all other five sectoral indices closed in the green with Mining & Oil raking in a 2.17-percent gain. Volume traded reached 8.63 billion valued at P5.56 billion. "The US economy ended the week on a positive note, with payroll numbers for April beating forecasts. Private hiring jumped by 286,000, the most since January 2006. This tempered the pessimissm through much of the week as manufacturing cooled and the service industry expansion slowed," said trader Justino Calaycay Jr. of Accord capital. The jobs data became the much needed boost for the US markets to post gains. Both the Dow and tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the previous week in the green. Asian bourses were also mostly trading higher, with Singapore’s, Taiwan’s and Hong Kong’s posting gains by some one percent. In the local market, four of the five most active stocks for the day ended higher. San Miguel Corp., the day's top traded, jumped P7.10 or 6.48 percent to P116.60. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. added P0.04 or 4.94 percent at P0.85. SM Investments Corp., the holding firm of the SM Group, shed P3 or 0.36 percent at P557. JG Summit Holdings Inc., the holding firm of the Gokongwei family, surged P1.55 or 6.05 percent to P27.15. Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. soared P58 or 2.47 percent to P2,406. -- CMA/OMG, GMA News