Roundup: Philippine bourse closes higher on positive performance of neighboring equities

The Philippine stock market managed to get a boost from the performance of the neighboring equities, sending it back to the 7,800 level on Thursday.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 0.63 percent or 49.12 points to 7,839.82, while the broader all-share index rose by 0.60 percent or 26.92 points to 4,550.54.

Trading volume reached 1.29 billion shares worth 9.40 billion Philippine pesos (211.99 million U.S. dollars) with 105 stocks advancing, 67 declining and 40 unchanged.

Two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were the services and the mining and oil sectors. "Local share prices shrugged off a jittery start to track its peers in the region. It closed the morning trades with gains of 16. 7 points, restoring the measure to the 7800-levels. Optimism grew even more as traders returned from their lunch break, picking up food, conglomerates and property counters,"analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Asian markets were trading higher with the regional benchmark snapping consecutive losses this week. The Nikkei and the Topix rose as investors digested the boost in exporters earnings as the yen sustained its weakness.

On the other hand, US STOCKS slipped, a couple of central banks stepped on the easing pedal and the European Central Bank started its version of quantitative easing.

In the coming sessions, Calaycay said investors might be able to get some impetus from the domestic front as companies release their 2014 earnings. "We can fairly expect the results to begin flooding in by the final week of the month. Hopefully, it will be positive to provide justification for the current'elevated'valuations of Philippine shares,"Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Investors picked up shares of Alliance Global Group, Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and BDO Unibank, Inc. Endi