THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered on Wednesday from the preceding day’s drop to mark its strongest finish in nearly a month, taking its cue from Wall Street and keeping in step with many Asian peers.

The local benchmark added 74.99 points or 0.95% to close at 7,915.30, while the all shares index climbed 23.37 points or 0.49% to end at 4,763.69.

PSEi’s Wednesday’s finish was just slightly better than Sept. 18’s 7,915.29 and the best closing since Sept. 17’s 7,932.23.

“The stock market rallied today, up by shy of one percent, passing the 7,850 minor resistance… due to optimism in the global market’s earnings season and… anticipation of earnings season in our local bourse as well,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Associate Piper Chaucer E. Tan said in a text message.

Reuters reported that Wall Street advanced on Tuesday on a good start to its third-quarter reporting season, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite climbing 0.89%, one percent and 1.24%, respectively.

Many major Asian bourses followed suit, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix indices climbing 1.20% and 0.70%, respectively, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 0.47%, South Korea’s KOSPI climbing 0.71% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index adding 0.77%.

On the other hand, the Shanghai SE Composite and India’s S&P BSE Sensex index fell 0.41% and 0.21%, respectively.

AAA Southeast Equities, Inc. Research Head Christopher John Mangun noted that the main index “continues to trade within its congestion area between 7,750 and 7,920.”

“If it fails to break and end above it, we may see it test support in the next few days,” he said in an e-mail. “Although, we may see some excitement from investors as the release of 3Q earnings reports has just began. Nothing happens until we see it break and hold above 8,000.”

All six sectoral indices ended up: property by 62.09 points or 1.5% to 4,175.39, holding firms by 89.95 points or 1.17% to 7,736.78, mining and oil by 56.26 points or 0.62% to 9,086.06, industrials by 48.74 points or 0.45% to 10,750.06, financials by 6.47 points or 0.35% to 1,835.89, and services by 0.37 points or 0.02% to 1,524.35.

Value turnover grew to 715.39 million shares worth P5.55 billion from Tuesday’s 631.01 million shares worth P4.60 billion.

Stocks that declined slightly edged out those that gained 93 to 87, while 62 others closed flat.

Wednesday’s list of 20 most active stocks saw four that ended down: Philippine Seven Corp. by 3.6% to P134 apiece, Puregold Price Club, Inc. by 1.6% to P39.90, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. by 0.73% to P68 and Ayala Corp. by 0.06% to P878 each.

Those that gained were led by Phinma Energy Corp. (8.2% to P2.77), JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (4.08% to P73.90) and Ayala Land, Inc. (2.29% to P49.10).

Foreign investors turned bullish again with P841.28-million net buying, turning around from Tuesday’s P347.81-million net selling. — Denise A. Valdez

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