PHL share prices post modest gains, snap 3-day skid

Philippine stocks posted modest gains on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak as players picked up issues on a bargain. The benchmark 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index climbed 18.99 points or 0.45 percent to 4,255.44 while the all shares inched up 9.20 points or 0.31 percent at 2,994.82. Losers, however, edged out gainers, 67 to 61 while 46 stocks closed flat. Except for Financials, which gave up 0.47 percent, all other five sectoral indices advanced led by Mining and Oil's 0.74-percent rise and Holding Firms' 0.68-percent jump. Volume traded reached 1.73 billion shares valued at about P3.62 billion. "...investors continued to digest a better-than-expected inflation numbers for May," said trader Justino Calaycay Jr. On Tuesday, the government reported that inflation in May recorded a 4.5-percent rise, at the low-end of the initial estimate of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The local bourse's positive position bucked the gloomy outlook of global markets as Wall Street continued to post losses overnight, while Asian bourses have yet to find a reason to be bullish. In the local market, three of the five most active stocks ended in the green. Holding firm Alliance Global Group Inc., the session's top traded, added P0.22 or 2.22 percent at P10.12. SM Investments Corp., the holding firm of the SM group, advanced P1 or 0.18 percent to P566. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. inched up P0.01 pr 1.11 percent at P0.91. San Miguel Corp. dipped P0.60 or 0.52 percent to P115.50. Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. was unchanged at P2,300. -- CMA/OMG, GMA News