By Arra B. Francia, Reporter

LOCAL equities climbed on Friday amid slower-than-expected inflation results for the month of March.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 0.24% or 19.05 points to close at 7,873.18 yesterday, while the broader all-shares index rallied 0.3% or 14.37 points to 4,846.99.

“The optimism due to the lower than expected March 2019 inflation rate of 3.3% and developments on the US-China talks lifted the local market in today’s session,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. said in a market note.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Friday that inflation slowed down to 3.3% in March, compared to February’s 3.8% and the 4.3% booked in the same period a year ago. This marks the lowest inflation rate since January 2018, and is the fifth straight month of deceleration from the high of 6.7% seen last September and October 2018.

The figure was also lower than the 3.5% median result from a BusinessWorld poll of 13 economists taken last week.

Papa Securities Corp. Sales Associate Gabriel Jose F. Perez however noted that the index remained flat despite better inflation results.

“The index ended in the green, but still flattish…Note that value turnover still remained weak at only P4.4B (ex-blocks) and how the index still failed to break out from the 7,900 level despite the better-than-expected inflation print of 3.3% for March,” Mr. Perez said in an email.

Markets overseas mostly got a boost from positive developments on the US-China trade war, which is reportedly in the final stages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.64% or 166.50 points to 26,384.63, while the S&P 500 index added 0.21% or 5.99 points to 2,879.39. In contrast, the Nasdaq Composite index slipped 0.05% or 3.77 points to close at 7,891.79.

Asian indices also ended mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 firming up 0.38% or 82.55 points to 21,807.50. The Hang Seng index dropped 0.17% or 50.07 points to 29,936.32, while the Shanghai Composite advanced 0.94% or 30.28 points to 3,246.57.

Property was the lone counter that declined, slumping 0.15% or 6.20 points to 4,075.07. The rest went up, led by financials which advanced 0.57% or 9.82 points to 1,742.17.

Holding firms gained 0.45% or 34.50 points to 7,732.86; services inched up 0.32% or 5 points to 1,591.47; mining and oil was up 0.12% or 9.11 points to 7,734.29, while industrial added 0.05% or 6.20 points to 11,740.98.

Foreign investors turned net buyers once again, recording net purchases of P455.77 million, against Thursday’s net outflows of P243.86 million.

Turnover remained thin at P5.04 billion after some 2.02 billion issues switched hands, lower than the previous session’s P5.91 billion.

Advancers outpaced decliners, 117 to 81, while 49 names were unchanged.

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