Roundup: Philippine bourse ends flat with weekly gain of nine points

The Philippine stock market ended the week positively, albeit flat, as investors look for reasons to keep beefing up their portfolio.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index added 0.05 percent or 3.83 points to 7,818.38 on Friday, while the broader all-share index gained 0.19 percent or 8.53 points to 4,529.31.

Trading volume reached 1.44 billion shares worth 9.08 billion Philippine pesos (203.31 million U.S. dollars) with 109 stocks advancing, 73 advancing and 40 were unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the holding firm and the services sector bucked the trend. "Sessions traded flat with a downward bias as players digest other catalysts that could ramp-up the market above the 7,850 level," 2TradeAsia.com said in its daily stock market comment.

The composite index went to as low as 7,774.74 during Friday's session but managed to recover the losses.

"Decliners would stay limited overall, as investors have priced in the U.S. Federal Reserves modest interest rate increase in the second half," 2TradeAsia.com said.

So far, investors interest are on second-tier stocks. Over-all, the market ended the week flat with a weekly gain of nine points.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Investors picked up shares of Jollibee Foods Corp. and SM Prime Holdings, Inc. Endi