Roundup: Philippines bourse extends rally on bargain hunting

The Philippine stock market extended its rally on Wednesday following bargain hunting on select issues.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index went up by 0.51 percent or 34.69 points to 6,893.98, while the broader all-share index rose by 0.19 percent or 7.58 points to 3,972.44. Trading volume reached 1.54 billion shares worth 8.52 billion pesos (181.56 million U.S. dollars) with 80 stocks advancing, 96 declining and 36 unchanged.

Only two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were the holding firm and the property sectors.

"Eyes were still glued at China with peripheral concerns over U. S. Federal Reserve Janet Yellen's comments Friday," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the U.S. Federal Reserve has another meeting left this year, December 15 and December 16. The first meeting for 2016 takes place on January 26 and January 27.

Overseas, Dow Jones industrial average index was up by a mere 47.24 points.

Calaycay noted the smaller value turnover and the higher number of trades in the past sessions, which he said could be indicative of an easing pressure from institutional accounts.

"This leads us to believe that the public has decided to head for the exits while institutional investors could already be lying- in-wait for the next opportunity, if and when it surfaces," he said.

Most stocks in the 30-company index were picked up. These were Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Ayala Corp., and Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. Endi