Philippines share prices closed 2.52 percent higher on Wednesday on the eve of a central bank meeting that is expected to cut key interest rates, dealers said. All sectors were higher, with property developers extending their rally on expectations that the central bank will announce its second interest rate cut this year after its policy-setting meeting Thursday, they said.
The composite index added 92.63 points to 3,769.82, off the day's high of 3,783.45. Turnover totalled 8.4 billion shares worth 7.8 billion pesos (173.06 million dollars). Gainers outnumbered decliners 95 to 34, while 39 stocks were steady. The broader all-share index jumped 51.07 points to 2,346.38.
Market leaders Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) and Ayala Corp reached new record highs. "Market players were initially a bit hesitant to further build up their positions, but the strong showing by PLDT kept the momentum going," said Rommel Macapagal of Westlink Global Equities.
"For me the rise is too fast and too soon," hee said, suggesting a pullback or consolidation is imminent. PLDT, the country's biggest company by market value, jumped 100 pesos to 3,040 after reaching a record high of 3,065 during the day.
"A lot of investment houses are seeing good earnings prospects for PLDT. This rally is really driven by its strong fundamentals. And this also shows the overall positive outlook for the Philippine market," said Astro del Castillo of First Grade Holdings.
Top conglomerate Ayala Corp touched an all-time high of 610 pesos in late trade before closing at 605, up 25 from the previous session. "Investors are taking another look at valuations for major Philippine companies, including Ayala Corp Its core businesses are doing well and, at the same time, there's some positive news coming out about the company," said Ron Rodrigo of Unicapital Securities.
Ayala last month started a two billion-peso share buyback program to boost its stock price. San Miguel A was steady at 62.50 while its B shares fell one to 65.
Comments
Comments are closed.