Bargain hunting pulls up Philippine bourse

Bargain hunting pulled up the Philippine stock market on Tuesday. The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index added 0.49 percent or 32.10 points to 6636.45, while the broader all-share index rose by 0.50 percent or 19.84 points to 4,019. Trading volume reached 710 million shares worth 6.46 billion pesos with 104 stocks advancing, 63 declining, and 50 unchanged. All six counters were up. "Somewhat growing tired and weary of poring over recent risk factors and discounting these into share prices, markets turned focus on corporates particularly on merger and acquisition activity," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. Said. The analyst said this provided a decent lift to share prices in the U.S. and Europe overnight. In turn, this gave local investors, as well as in the broader Asian region reason to snap out of an extended decline. Calaycay said the common thread that sews the past corrective actions is that the motive forces behind it were sourced externally. "But a refocusing on the local economic fundamentals and corporates has always managed to restore control to the bulls. It is so today as it was back then," Calaycay said. The analyst added that the market may build on Tuesday's momentum and ride on a modicum of month-end window dressing as it tests resistance at 6,670 to 7,000 although this may be tempered by Thursday's break. The market will be shut for Labor Day holiday. Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These include Ayala Corp., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Alliance Global Group, Inc.