Foreign buying drives stock index past 8,000

The Philippine stock market breached the 8,000 mark yesterday, surpassing expectations.

Traders said foreign buying in the latter part of the day propped up the index.

“Foreign flows may have driven the comeback as we initially saw an outflow in the morning at the same time when the index was weak. The selling transitioned to a buying figure throughout the day, however, to finally end with a P986 million print,” said Gio Perez of Papa Securities.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) soared 120.05 points to settle at 8,024.14, gaining momentum in the latter part of trading session.

Yesterday’s close was the highest close since April 12, 2018, when the index finished at 8,043.07.

Similarly, the broader All Shares index gained 56.45 points, or 1.19 percent, to finish at 4,786.60.

Traders were expecting the index to breach the 8,000 mark this quarter but it came much sooner than expected.

The rest of the counters were also all in the green with the industrial, holding firms and financials rallying by 2.14 percent, 1.62 percent and 1.40 percent, respectively.