The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) rallied minutes before the closing bell Monday, with the Index up by 32.36 points and all shares gaining 22.35 points, led by Industrial and Property stocks.
A total of 1.2 billion shares were exchanged on the trading floor, with total value hitting P7.33 billion. While the Index and the sectoral groups were in the green, except for holding firms, there were 113 declines against 87 advances.
Meralco (PSE:MER) led the blue chips with a 5.05-per cent gain from last week’s trade. Meralco’s stock opened at P270 a share and hit a high of P278.4 until the closing bell. The company did not make any disclosure today.
SM Prime Holdings (PSE:SMPH) closed at P32.20 a share, its highest since last week. The stock opened at P31.70 then rallied to hit P32.20 until the closing bell. A total of 3.8 million SMPH shares were traded Monday, with a value of P120.8 million.
Shares of Merry Mart Consumer Corp (PSE:MM), led by young tycoon Edgar Sia II, also continued to sizzle Monday, hitting its highest price since its debut last week at P3.60 apiece.
The retailer gained 22.03 percent from last week’s close to become one of the most actively traded companies in this week’s market opening.
Acesite (Phils) Hotel Corporation (PSE:ACE) also closed higher today, with the stock hitting P1.33 at the end of the trading day. The stock had been stagnant at P1.15 for the entire of last week. It opened at P1.17 today and reached a high of P1.35.
JG Summit Holdings Inc (PSE:JGS) declined by 2.77 percent today, the lowest in the PSEi, to settle at P61.5 a share, from Friday’s P63.25.
Top 10 Blue Chips
MER – Manila Electric Company – P278.4 (5.06%)
SMPH – SM Prime Holdings – P32.2 (2.38%)
URC – Universal Robina Corporation – P132.5 (2.32%)
AP – Aboitiz Power Corporation – P28.4 (2.16%)
DMC – DMCI Holdings Inc – P4.33 (2.12%)
ICT – Int’l Container Terminal Services – P100 (2.04%)
FGEN – First Gen Corporation – P20.9 (1.95%)
SECB – Security Bank Corporation – P104.1 (1.76%)
TEL – PLDT Inc – P1,252 (1.71%)
ALI – Ayala Land Inc – P36.9 (1.65%)
BusinessNewsAsia will be publishing Philippine stocks to watch later today. – BusinessNewsAsia.com