Roundup: Philippine bourse rallies ahead of Christmas

The Philippine stock market opened the week with a ray of hope after investors flocked the local equities in the hope of making profits from the "Santa Claus" rally.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 0.63 percent or 43.27 points to 6,910.34, while the broader all-share index added 0.29 percent or 11.44 points to 3,952.32.

Trading volume reached 744.78 million shares worth 4.00 billion Philippine pesos (84.33 million U.S. dollars) with 69 stocks advancing, 84 declining, and 47 were unchanged.

Two of the six counters fell. These were services and the mining and oil sectors.

Online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said local equities may trade within the 6,850-6,920 range on thin volume over the week of Christmas as investors weigh prospects for 2016 ahead of the next wave of data. Overseas, weak sentiment from Wall Street may add some pessimism, coupled with sobering expectations for Phlippine remittances and exports in 2016.

The Dow Jones industrial average index slipped by 367 on Friday.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment that attempts in the early afternoon session to push the main measure back towards the day's high which, although lacking conviction, managed a re-test of the earlier referenced resistance line.

It finally succeeded in breaking past the line half-an-hour to the final bell.

"Suffice to say that over-all, over the last eight years, the 'Santa Claus rally' has given investors an average return of 1.56 percent," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those sold down were Ayala Corp. but investors picked up shares of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and Ayala Land, Inc. Endit