Stocks extend rally on revived investor appetite
LOCAL STOCKS extended their winning streak yesterday to a fourth straight session, moving closer to being in positive territory for the year, as investor appetite for risky assets improved on easing concerns overseas.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index climbed 92.05 points or 1.36% to close at 6,848.87, its highest level since closing at 6,835.13 on Jan. 5. The local barometer is now down by only 1.5% or roughly 103 points from its end-2015 finish after plunging by as much as 12.5%.
The all-shares index added 45.88 points or 1.17% to settle at 3,939.03.
“We were helped by the good performance from Wall Street and the strength of some commodities,” Miko A. Sayo, trader at Angping & Associates Securities, Inc., said in a telephone interview.
“It seems like investor confidence has started to return given that concerns have eased in general and this is one of the reasons equities have been rallying. Global central banks have managed to take measure to address specific concerns,” Lexter L. Azurin, head of research at Unicapital Securities, Inc., said in a separate interview.
Overnight, Wall Street staged its first three-day rally this year, buoyed by the 5.6% gain in US crude, after Iran expressed its support to the decision of Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze production to address oversupply.
Minutes of last month’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting released on Wednesday showed policy makers were concerned about tighter global financial conditions weighing on the world’s largest economy and were mulling over changes to the pace of interest rate hikes this year.
Services was the lone counter in the red, losing 5.29 points or 0.33% to 1,564.56.
All other sub-indices chalked up gains of at least 1% each. Financials rallied 27.28 points or 1.78% to 1,558.17; holding firms surged 111.32 points or 1.75% to 6,452.05; industrial gained 165.68 points or 1.53% to 10,937.56; mining and...