PHILIPPINE SHARES continued growing on Wednesday on hopes that the lockdown will ease next week and news of a coronavirus vaccine from Russia.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 41.06 points or 0.69% to close at 5,995 on Wednesday, marking its third straight day of growth.

The broader all shares index also increased 14.69 points or 0.42% to end at 3,551.98.

“(Wednesday’s) gains have wiped out all of the losses that we saw at the end of July when investors dumped shares because of the imposition of stricter quarantine,” AAA Southeast Equities, Inc. Research Head Christopher John Mangun said in an e-mail.

“Investors are slowly gaining confidence after reassurance that the lockdown will be eased… Vaccine hopes have also lifted the sentiment,” he added.

On Tuesday, the Russian government announced it has led the world in approving a coronavirus vaccine, which President Rodrigo R. Duterte said he will obtain for Filipinos.

The Philippine president also said he committed to clinical trials and local production of the Russian vaccine.

The development boosted investor sentiment on the Philippines’ capacity for recovery, as local coronavirus infections surged to 139,538 on Tuesday.

“Philippines shares closed short of the 6,000 mark, as investors weighed the outlook for the economy…,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a mobile message.

Half of the sectoral indices at the PSE ended Wednesday’s session with gains. Financials rose 16.97 points or 1.53% to 1,127.10; industrials added 96.57 points or 1.23% to 7,916.09; and holding firms climbed 51.32 points or 0.84% to 6,166.17.

On the other hand, mining and oil lost 153.99 points or 2.63% to 5,703.97; property shed 7.15 points or 0.25% to 2,885.13; and services slid 1.56 points or 0.11% to 1,457.52.

Some 5.9 billion issues valued at P17.08 billion switched hands on Wednesday, up from the previous session’s 5.31 billion issues worth P5.07 billion.

Decliners outnumbered advancers, 102 against 85, while 47 names ended unchanged.

Net foreign selling stood at P360.1 million, slightly lower from the previous day’s P377.14 million.

US stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Dow snapping a seven-day streak of gains and falling late in the session on growing uncertainty about breaking a stalemate in Washington over a fiscal stimulus deal.

Both indexes had been higher for much of the session, and the S&P 500 came within striking distance of its closing record high from February, before the onset of the coronavirus crisis in the United States that caused one of Wall Street’s most dramatic crashes in history.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 104.53 points or 0.38% to 27,686.91; the S&P 500 lost 26.78 points or 0.80%,to 3,333.69; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 185.53 points or 1.69% to 10,782.82. — Denise A. Valdez with Reuters

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