Roundup: Philippine bourse rallies despite poor economic data overseas

The Philippine stock market bounced back from last week's bloodshed, maintaining mostly the momentum from last Friday's rally.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index jumped by 1.19 percent or 89.91 points to 7,670.37, while the broader all-share index rallied by 0.84 percent or 36.56 points to 4,397.37.

Trading volume reached 1.29 billion shares worth 7.07 billion Philippine pesos (158.79 million U.S. dollars) with 88 stocks advancing, 85 declining and 37 were unchanged.

All six counters were up.

"Following an encouraging rise Friday, the main Philippine share index started off the week swinging between losses and gains hinting at sustaining that momentum," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Monday's performance showed a defiance to the general movement of share prices across Asia, which were trading lower dragged by poor economic numbers in the US and ahead of the release of manufacturing data from China.

The local barometer, he said, basically picked up where it left off last Friday, building up gains by as much as 38 points and plunging to depths of 58 points to the morning session's low of 7521.17.

The outlook took another turn before the noon recess with the index breaching the 7600-line at the break as bargain hunters and technical pundits entered the scene.

"We can expect more of these swings in the near-term as adjustments to the broad domestic economic outlook are released and external headwinds from Greece, the US and China continues to blow," he said.

Bargain hunters mostly picked up battered blue chips. These include SM Investments Corp., Megaworld Corp., and JG Summit Holdings, Inc. Endi