The stock market rallied again Wednesday along with the rest of the region, with investors taking heart from another record close on Wall Street and talk of central bank stimulus, while China released better than expected export figures for June.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index added 6.07 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,944.02 on a value turnover of P11.4 billion. Gainers beat losers, 102 to 87, with 57 issues unchanged.
SM Prime Holdings Inc., the biggest integrated property developer, rose 1.9 percent to P29.95, while Philex Petroleum Corp. jumped 14.5 perent to P5.38 after an international tribunal ruled that China’s efforts to assert control over the South China Sea exceeded the law.
Philex and other local oil exploration companies own oil contracts to drill in parts of the contested West Philippine Sea.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which has investments in toll roads, water and electricity distribution, and hospitals, retreated 1.4 percent to P7, while JG Summit Holdings Inc. of industrialist John Gokongwei lost 1.2 percent to P85.65.
Japan’s Nikkei was once again the stand-out market, soaring on the back of a weaker yen and wiping out almost all the losses suffered after the shock of Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union.
The Nikkei index ended up 0.8 percent to finish just short of its June 23 close, before it dived almost eight percent in reaction to the Brexit vote.
Hong Kong ended up 0.5 percent and Shanghai was 0.4 percent higher.
Soon after the markets closed in China, the government said exports rose 1.3 percent in yuan terms in June, better than the 0.3 percent forecast in a survey by Bloomberg News and up from May. However, imports fell more than expected, indicating weak demand at home.
An optimistic tone has filtered through trading floors all week, after US data Friday showed the world’s number one economy created far more jobs than expected last month.
A landslide win for Japan’s ruling party at the weekend and the sooner-than-expected choice of a replacement for Britain’s David Cameron as prime minister has also lifted confidence.
Australia’s ruling party was also confirmed at the weekend as winners of a general election held eight days earlier.
The vote in Japan has fanned expectations the country’s leaders will push through a giant stimulus program to reignite stuttering growth, with reports saying it could be as much as 10 trillion yen. With Bloomberg, AFP
