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MANILA - Philippine share prices on Monday bucked the Asia-wide downtrend, briefly touching the 5,200 level anchored on the strength of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. before profit-taking pared the local market's gains.
At the Philippine Stock Exchange, the composite index added 47.13 points or 0.92 percent to close at 5,167.20.
The PSE index surged 85.01 points, briefly breaching the 5,200-mark until profit-taking kicked in.
"Failure to break the 5,200-line means it's a strong resistance level for the PSEi," said Jose Vistan of AB Capital Securities Inc.
Leading the market's rally was the services counter, which rose by 3.07 percent due to the gains of PLDT.
PLDT shares rose for a second straight day, jumping 4.88 percent to P2,624 from its previous close of P2,502 apiece.
"The management did give some guidance in terms of earnings and this would ascertain that shareholders of PLDT would continue to get regular cash dividends. It will continue to be profitable which is something positive for PLDT since it is in a mature industry," said Vistan.
As the biggest stock in terms of market capitalization, PLDT was also the main target of fund managers who are in quarter-end window dressing activities, he said.
Window-dressing also benefited some first- and second-line counters, said Jun Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp.
Actively traded stocks were PLDT, Alliance Global, Megaworld, Bloomberry and SM Investments.
Top gainers were ATN Holdings, Highlands Prime and Anchor Land, while the biggest losers were Seafront Resources, IP Converge and Greenergy Holdings.
Asian markets closed lower following comments from the Bank of International Settlements that central banks in developed economies may be reaching the limits of their ability to aid economic recovery with balance sheets burdened by asset purchases, Calaycay said.
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