Local share prices rebound from 3-day slump

Local share prices rebounded from a threeday slump yesterday, but more issues closed lower as the market consolidated from last week’s highs.

The PSEI advanced by 5.58 points or 0.11 percent to close at 5,043.52.

A total of 2.61 billion shares valued at P6.33 billion were traded. Decliners outpaced gainers 89 to 85, with 39 issues closing unchanged.

Analysts said with the US market wobbling overnight on lower than expected housing data, the Philippine market “found little guidance from abroad.”

Lifting the PSEI was the attitude of some investors to “take every dip as an opportunity to buy,” they said.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets fell Thursday after mixed US housing data and disappointment over the limited scope of China’s latest monetary loosening maneuver kept investors on the sidelines.

Hong Kong’s benchmark struggled for direction. After a higher open, the Hang Seng ventured into negative territory before flattening out at 20,901.60.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.2 percent to 2,024.12. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent to 2,368.19. Benchmarks in New Zealand and Singapore also fell.

But financial companies helped lead Austra- lia’s S&P/ASX 200 into positive territory with a gain of 0.4 percent to 4,269.40. Benchmarks in India, Taiwan and Malaysia rose. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 40.59 points to 10,121.10.

Japan announced that it posted its first trade surplus in five months in February on a recovery in auto and electronics exports to the United States. The announcement touched off a brief flurry of yen-buying that pushed up the Japanese currency.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.4 percent to 13,124.62. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed down 0.2 percent at 1,402.89. The Nasdaq composite average closed up marginally at 3,075.32.