THE local stock barometer firmed up on Wednesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision.
Reversing losses in early trade, the Philippine Stock Exchange index ended 48.12 points or 0.61 percent higher to close at 7,966.01.
“Philippine markets traded in an upward bias as it awaited the outcome from the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC).
The two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting (June 13–14) will wrap up later with a news conference hosted by Fed chair Janet Yellen,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.
“The Fed has been confronted recently with softer inflation data and only scattered evidence of an expected reacceleration of activity. With this, market observers are nearly unanimous in the view that the Fed-funds rate will be raised, with a nearly 100 percent chance of an interest-rate increase,” he said.
The day’s gains were led by the services counter, which rose by 1.23 percent. Other sectors were modestly higher.
Only the mining/oil counter ended lower for the day.
Value turnover for the day was heavy at P18.25 billion, bloated by a P11.6-billion block sale on Meralco.
A unit of PLDT sold its remaining stake in Meralco to Metro Pacific Investments to focus on core businesses and pare down debt.
PLDT rose by 2.97 percent as analysts deemed the transaction beneficial to the telecom firm.
There were 97 advancers that edged out 85 decliners while 50 stocks were unchanged yesterday.
Apart from PLDT, DMCI and JG Summit also gained over 2 percent yesterday.
Metrobank, Megaworld, Globe and URC were all up by over 1 percent.
SM Prime, SM Investments, Ayala Corp., BDO and BPI also contributed to the day’s gains.
On the other hand, Meralco — the day’s most actively traded stock — fell by 3.59 percent as MPIC bought additional shares in the utility from PLDT at a discount.
GT Capital fell by 1.61 percent while Ayala Land, ICTSI, Metro Pacific and Security Bank were also down.
Bloomberry fell by another 1.45 percent.