PSEi soars to 14th all-time high above 6,400

MANILA, Philippines (2nd UPDATE) – Stocks surged to a new all-time high past the 6,400 level on Monday, February 4, following a Wall Street rally, and on expectations of strong local corporate income results.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index settled at 6,435.98, up 117.37 points or 1.86% from the previous record close of 6,318.61 on Friday, February 1. It also hit an intraday peak of 6,449.44.

This was the 14th time that the bellwether index closed at a new high in 2013, and the 75th under the Aquino administration.

The broader all-share index climbed 63.85 points or 1.6% to 4,040.92.

All sectoral indices ended in green, with holding firms posting the biggest advance of 2.57%.

Some 3.13 billion shares worth P11.18 billion were traded.

Monday’s gains followed the Dow’s rally to a 5-year high February 1 on the back of the latest US jobs data.

Revised data from the US labor department showed a net job growth of an average of 181,000 a month in the US last year, up from a prior estimate of 153,000.

The Dow rallied 1.08% to 14,009.79, above 14,000 points for the first time since October 2007.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 1.01% and the Nasdaq jumped 1.18%.

Locally, analysts said investors were expecting strong corporate earnings reports for 2012.

The better-than-expected 6.6% Philippine gross domestic product growth last year also kept optimism among investors high. – Rappler.com