Roundup: Philippine stocks track U.S. rally

The U.S. markets' strong rally last night, along with the good performance of select index movers, sent the Philippine market rallying on Tuesday.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index broke its weeks of lackluster trading after it climbed 2.3 percent or 64.98 points to settle at 2,884.46. The all share index was also up 1.59 percent or 28.48 points to 1,818.89.

Trading volume was unusually high again because of the special block sale of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) -- Philippines' largest power distributor which secured 84 percent of the market.

Without this, market participation was low where only 1.96 billion shares valued at 1.89 billion pesos (40.41 million U.S. Dollars) were traded. Likewise, foreign investors were net sellers at 9 billion pesos (1.92 billion U.S. Dollars) because of the extraordinary transaction.

All six subsector indices closed in the green, led by the service sector which soared by 2.87 percent or 41.48 points to 1, 484.21 and the industrial index which climbed by 2.85 percent or 112.84 points to 4,059.18.

Both indices were pulled up by heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Meralco.

Market breadth was positive as a total of 90 stocks increased their value while 17 shares declined and 55 did not move. This made analysts conclude that the local market will likely continue its rally on Wednesday because of the strong performance.

"The local market followed the movement of the U.S. market which was up Monday night because of the positive economic data," Ignacio Soriano of local brokerage Papa Securities, Inc. said.

Soriano said PLDT and Meralco shares also performed well and this helped push up the composite index.

Shares of the country's dominant phone firm, for instance, broke above its 2,400 peso-level (51.32 U.S. dollars) to touch a high of 2,565 pesos (54.85 U.S. dollars) apiece on Tuesday or a 4. 26 percent gain from prior day's closing.

Meralco meanwhile retrieved the 6.02 percent it lost the other day to close at 176 pesos (3.76 U.S. dollars) per share on Tuesday. The rally was mostly because of the closing of transaction between Metro Pacific Investments Corp.-- the local unit of Hong Kong- based First Pacific Co. Ltd.-- and PLDT trust fund and First Pacific's Crogan Ltd.

"Right now it remains to be seen whether the market will continue to rally unless there is a new set of positive data that will be released," Soriano said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed higher.

Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. jumped by 5.26 percent to close at 1.60 pesos per share.

Other blue chips that gained include Ayala Land, Inc. -- Philippines' largest property distributor -- and its sister the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

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