PSEi extends gains, posts new record high

Philippine share prices posted modest gains on Tuesday, extending their gains for fourth consecutive day and reaching a new record high. The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index jumped 18.05 points or 0.1 percent to 4,439.61 while the all shares rose 9.25 points or 0.30 percent to 3,078.48. The bourse's gain bucked the general bearish outlook of Asian markets. Save for bourses in Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan, the rest of regional stocks markets were trading lower. Gainers outnumbered losers, 71 to 63, while 45 stocks closed unchanged. Four of the six sectoral indices advanced, led by Holding Firms' 1.14-percent climb. Mining & Oil and Property were the sore spots for the day, retreating 0.98 percent and 0.06 percent, respectively. Volume traded reached 2.77 billion shares valued at P7.01 billion. Optimism continued to buoy the market. "...the optimism driven by having partially overcome the biggest hurdles to both European and US economies, coupled with positioning and discounting Q2 (second quarter) earnings may push the index to new all-time highs in the days ahead," said Justino Calaycay Jr., Accord Capital Equities trader. In the local stock market, three of the five most active stocks for the day closed in the green. Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp., the day's top traded, surged P4 or 3.36 percent to P123. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., one of the country's largest lenders in terms of assets, gained P0.15 or 0.21 percent at P71.65. Geothermal power producer Energy Development Corp. added P0.03 or 0.43 percent at P6.92. Philex Mining Corp., the country's largest miner, dropped P0.60 or 2.41 percent to P24.25. Aboitiz Power Corp. slipped P0.05 or 0.16 percent to P31.50. -- CMA/OMG, GMA News