PSE ROARS BACK TO LIFE

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) roared back to life and market pundits see a possible return of the bulls ahead of the expected normalcy in business operations, posting a sizeable 128.05 points gain or up 2.03 percent to close at 6,464.05 points.

Gainers outnumbered losers 135 to 73 with 46 shares unchanged as all the sub sectors ended in positive territory bannered by the mining and oil sector which went up by 2.71 percent. The financials rose by 1.73 percent; industrials, 1.71 percent; holding firms 0.85 percent and the property sector went up by by 2.12 percent.

Value turnover was a respectable P7.245 billion as the net foreign selling eased a bit, to P404 million with big name stocks getting more foreign buys like market bellwether SM Investments (P99 million) food giant Jollibee Foods (P62 million), Security Bank (P76 million); Bank of PI (P46 million) and Ayala Land (P40 million).

Total trade amounted to P7.245 billion with third telco, Dito as the most active stock with transactions of P777.92 million as it declined by 31 centavos to P6.31 while BDO Unibank was the second most active stock as its share price went up by 50 centavos to P90.50. SM rose by P21.50 to P996.

Jollibee, powered by net foreign buying, rose by a sizeable P10.50 or 6.02 percent to close at P185 while Globe Telecom and PLDT posted opposite performances, Globe, down by P18, hobbled as it is by P156 million in net foreign selling, to close at P2,002 while PLDT posted a peso gain to P1,326.

Bank of PI went up by P1.20 to P76 while Security Bank rose by P1.25 to P99.75. Converge posted a gain of P18 centavos to P14.72, while Ayala Corp. ended the day P15 higher at P765. The other gainers were SM Prime, up by 85 centavos to P33.85, Metrobank by P2.05 to P42.75 ICTSI, up 50 centavos to P115.50, MRC Allied by P0.045 to P465.