Roundup: Philippine bourse closes higher following U.S. equities rise

The Philippine stock market inched higher, albeit marginally, on Thursday following the three-digit rise of the U.S. equities.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index eked out a gain of 3.16 points or 0.04 percent higher from Wednesday's close to settle at 7,578.31. The broader all-share index was also up by 0. 11 percent or 4.62 points to 4,334.99.

Trading volume reached 686 million shares worth 7.59 billion Philippine pesos (168 million U.S. dollars) with 87 stocks advancing, 64 declining, and 62 were unchanged.

Two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were financials and the holding firm sectors.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment that investors are starting to discount the bad news that have been released recently.

These include the country's poor economic growth, weak corporate earnings, and development in Greece.

The failure of the Greek government to address its debt crisis, however, is investors biggest concern.

"But what is important at the domestic end if for the economy to provide better numbers sufficient for investors to focus on it and push the Greece problem off-center," he said.

For now, investors took comfort from the 138-point rise of the Dow Jones industrial average index even if Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remained defiant.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those sold down were SM Prime Holdings, Inc., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Ayala Corp. Endi