Roundup: Philippine bourse closes higher on bargain hunting

The Philippine stock market ended its three-day losing streak on Thursday on bargain hunting.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.75 percent or 59.02 points to 7,892.05, while the broader all-share index added 0.89 percent or 39.73 points to 4,518.72.

Trading volume reached 1.04 billion shares worth 9.59 billion Philippine pesos (216.64 million U.S. dollars) with 112 stocks advancing, 63 declining, and 54 unchanged.

All six counters were up.

"Local share prices kicked off where it closed the previous session and extended higher, appearing to be able to hold gains up to the morning session. This is in contrast to the two previous sessions where a relatively strong start fizzled out even before the noon break. At the end of the day, the measure was able to restore levels at 7900," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Calaycay said Thursday's rally, as well as most of the major equities in the region, comes despite some worrying news from China.

The Chinese government reported that manufacturing numbers dropped to a 12-month low, further highlighting the travails being experienced by the world's second largest economy.

Calaycay said it is possible that the 3.6 percent drop of the equities in the previous session have already factored this in.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These were SM Prime Holdings, Inc., BDO Unibank, Inc., and Megaworld Corp. Endi