Shares Rise on Bargain-Hunting
April 28, 2011
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index gained 14.97 to 3108.70. Decliners outnumbered gainers 54 to 46, while 79 issues unchanged. Volume was at 4.26 billion shares valued at 2.49 billion pesos. Among the most-actively traded issues was food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel. After declining recently due to its poor first-half performance, the company added 50 centavos to 83 pesos. Ayala's Class B shares gained 1 peso to 31.50 pesos, while the Class B shares of its real-estate unit, Ayala Land, were unchanged at 31 pesos. Universal Rightfield Property Holdings gained 25 centavos to 3.85 pesos on rumors it was negotiating for a private placement of shares, analysts said. Newly privatized Philippine National Bank dropped 5 pesos to 422.50 on uncertainty over whether it can maintain government deposits even though it is no longer a government bank. The central bank allayed those fears by stating Friday that PNB can hold more than the government's operating accounts. The central bank said that the government securities PNB holds are considered outstanding obligations of the government -- obligations against which PNB can hold government deposits. The commercial-industrial sector added 0.5%, the property sector gained 0.1%, the mining sector shed 0.7% and the oil sector lost 0.8%.
