MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange index bucked the broader fall in Southeast Asian markets on Monday.
The PSE index was up 0.83% to 6,477.94.
Among the day's big gainers were Vitarich, which soared 29% to P0.93 on a P2.4 billion debt-to-equity swap.
Also up were Alliance Global (up 1.74% to P26.25), Ayala Land (up 1.75% to P29), and SM Investments, which climbed 0.37% to P815).
At the foreign exchange market, the peso weakened by 21 centavos, closing at 43.26 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, Thai stocks dropped 2.4 percent on Monday as players locked in quick gains in large caps and banking stocks, while most others in Southeast Asia followed a broader fall in Asia amid renewed concerns about the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy.
Thai main SET index fell to near 1,450 mark at the midday trading break, with shares in Siam Commercial Bank Pcl and Krung Thai Bank Pcl sliding more than 4 percent. The stocks were among the outperformers last week.
Some brokers cited technical-led selling as indicators showed Thai stocks were relatively overbought compared to regional peers.
The SET's 14-day Relative Strength Index hovered near an overbought condition of 70 on the previous two sessions. The benchmark racked up 6.1 percent gain last week, Southeast Asia's best performer.
"Big caps are still the target of this risk-on and risk-off sentiment which will keep shares volatile. We have government spending story as a key boost domestically but there's still an uncertainty," said an analyst at Phillip Securities.
The government's proposed 2 trillion baht ($64.62 billion)infrastructure loan bill passed the third reading in the House on Friday and the bill is expected to be passed to the Senate for deliberation this week.
Among weak spots, Jakarta's Composite Index was down 1 percent after last week's gain of almost 5 percent. Singapore's index fell 0.7 percent in light volume that was around one-third of a full day average over the past 30 sessions. - With ANC and Reuters
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
