Stocks continue to surge

STOCKS carved a new all-time high for the 30th time this year yesterday as regional markets cheered a debt deal struck by Greece with its creditors.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index breached 5,600 in intraday trade before paring down gains to close at 5,586.45, up 7.03 points or 0.13 percent. Apart from posting another record high finish, a new intraday peak was set at 5,615.62.

Value turnover amounted to P6.17 billion. There were 68 ad- vancers against 79 decliners while 50 stocks were unchanged.

PSE trading was shortened in the morning due to a technical glitch that halted trading at 11:15 am. Trading resumed at 1:45 pm.

The day’s upswing was led by the services counter, driven by index heavyweight PLDT (+1.59 percent). The financial, industrial and property counters were also buoyant, making up for the slack in holding firms and mining/oil counters.

Overall, the index stocks that

contributed most to the day’s gains were Jollibee (+1.71 percent) and Belle (+1.19 percent).

The non-PSEi stocks that outperformed the main index and traded in heavy volume were Puregold (+5.02 percent), GT Capital (+1.51 percent) and PNB (+1.16 percent).

The PSEi’s gains were tempered by the decline of SM Prime, AC, AGI, BPI, DMCI, EDC, MWC and Globe.

Across the region, sentiment was boosted by news that global lenders have approved a basket of measures to cut Greek debt to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 and to slash the ratio further to below 110 percent of GDP in 2022.