PSE SUSTAINS RALLY

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index sustained its rally for the month closing higher although it trade down after a higher opening as investors weighed in their options given the differing take in the state of the country's economy to close at 7.080.62 points, up by a respectable 71 points or 1.01 percent.

Opening higher than its Monday close, the PSEi dropped below the 7,000 point psychological level before bargain hunters pushed up the share prices of selected stocks with the holding firms showing the biggest gain at 1.88 percent followed by industrials at .0.87 percent and property. 0.84 percent. The financials were up just by 0.19 percent while the mining and the services sectors were down 0.02 percent and 0.76 percent respectively.

Market bellwether SM Investments rose by P11 to P1,030 helped by foreign buying of P19 million out of the total P4.283 billion, while Bank of PI, with foreign selling of P50 million and BDO Unibank, P161 million, declined respectively by 10 centavos to P80 and 90 centavos to P104.10. GT Capital was unchanged at P620.

There were 108 gainers against 116 losers and 39 shares unchanged as the investors tried to pick their bargains out of the blue chips. As a result, Metrobank was up by P1.40 to P49.20, while Dito rose by 25 centavos to P6.69. In contrast, while PLDT posted a loss of P20 to P1,360, Globe Telecom gained P30 to P2,000. Converge shed 52 centavos to P15.48, while Now rose by 4 centavos to P4.83.

Property firms Ayala Land and Robinson's Land gained while market darling MerryMart declined. ALI was up by 75 centavos to P40.50 while RLC rose 24 centavos to P17.70. MM lost 12 centavos to P6.07 while Megaworld went down by 72 centavos to P9.19.

Market punters see a looming Christmas rally while some believe that the economy may decline by 10 percent in terms of GDP or gross domestic product this year and next year as per projections by lending agencies.