Roundup: Philippine bourse closes up on extended bargain hunting

The Philippine stock market ended Friday's session with more bargain hunting, bringing back the index to the 7,000 level.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index added 1.09 percent or 76.72 points to 7,098.81, while the broader all-share index gained 1.24 percent or 49.71 points to 4,056.08.

Trading volume reached 1.47 billion shares worth 11.26 billion Philippine pesos (241.09 million U.S. dollars) with 129 stocks advancing, 46 declining, and 40 were unchanged.

"Following a sea of red last Monday that threatened to pull the market into bearish territory, the welcome whiff of a positive news cycle breezed providing a clearing on the horizon," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

The Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) came in line with most forecast, albeit a tad lower than our minimum 5.7 percent, while the US GDP beat estimates.

Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) second major intervention in as many months appears to have settled frayed nerves.

"The wild swings we experienced for practically the entire week may be somewhat tempered today heading into a second extended weekend," Calaycay said.

The sea of uncertainty introduced by a slump in Chinese equities at the beginning of the week appears to have momentarily parted, allowing bargain hunters sufficient space and motivation to pursue their strategies, Calaycay said.

Alternatively, the aggressive intervention of the PBOC has given rise to hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve may defer any rate action, as many are beginning to expect, this September.

Local financial markets will stay shut on Monday for National Heroes Day.

The analyst said investors are obviously sensitive to the daily grind of overseas markets as focus stays on risk events.

Most stocks in the 30-company index were up. These include Ayala Corp., SM Prime Holdings, Inc., and BDO Unibank, Inc. Endi