PSEi charges to bull territory

Philippine shares entered the bull market territory on Friday as investors cheered the easing of US inflation and the rosy outlook on local commodity prices.

“The index has now made strides into the bull market territory since falling into the 5,700 range less than six months ago,” Regina Capital head of sales Luis Limlingan said.

“A bull market normally occurs when a stock market rises at least 20% from a recent low, though some like to argue whether to use the intraday or closing price as the marker,” he added.

The benchmark PSEi gained 118.01 points or 1.73% to 6,951.54 at the closing bell.

Friday’s close is over 20% above the near 5,700 lows seen in October last year.

Philstocks Financial equity analyst Claire Alviar said that “investors cheered the easing of US inflation in December.”

The US inflation clocked in at 6.5% in December, down from 7.1% in November.

“While prices rose at a 6.5% pace compared to the previous year, the results heightened hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon slow its hiking,” Limlingan said.

“Back home, the equities rally was boosted by BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) Gov. Felipe Medalla's rosy inflation outlook... Mr. Medalla said the worst of the CPI surge was potentially over, and inflation could fall within the national government’s target range of 2-4% in the third quarter,” he added.

Alviar said Friday’s rally was strong as the value turnover was recorded at P8.66 billion, higher than this month's average of P6.16 billion.

All sectors were in the green led by Financials, up by 4.44%, followed by Industrial which grew by 2.77%, and Services which was up 1.24%. —NB, GMA Integrated News