Trade war standoff, US rally pull up stocks

The stock market bucked the regional downtrend, soaring 100.44 points, or 1.38 percent, as concerns over the full-blown trade war between the US and China start to ease.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed at 7,333.73 points yesterday from Tuesday’s 7,233.29 points. Market breadth was positive as gainers outweigh decliners, 101 to 91, with 41 unchanged.

All counters including the holding firms, financials, property, industrial, mining and oil as well as services indices were all green.

Some 852.3 million shares worth P5.16 billion changed hands, slightly higher than Tuesday’s P5.06 billion.

Holding companies emerged as the biggest gainer at 2.06 percent followed by the property index with 1.25 percent as well as mining and oil with 1.1 percent.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. said the PSEi traded on the green for the entire session as the lack of trade war escalation and gains in US equities encouraged risk-taking.

Luis Miguel Zarcal, equity research associate at First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp., said in a report outlook that volatility is expected to remain this week as investors anticipate trade tensions to further escalate.

He said the US is set to impose another set of tariffs worth $16 billion in two week’s time and is planning to add $500 billion more should China retaliate.