The Philippine Stock Market - July 18, 2008

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Summary
Index Value: 11,446.66
Trade Time: July 17
Change: Up 207.38 (+1.85%)
Prev Close: 11,239.28
Open: 11,238.39
Day's Range: 11209.56 - 11446.66

After an erratic start, the DJIA mounted another huge rally and closed at its high. The DJIA again ended with gains of more than 200 points.

World Crude Prices also fell to around $130 a barrel.

The local equities market also got an initial boost with the big rally in WallStreet. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) opened higher and tried to advance but it somehow was not able to gather enough momentum. It even closed at its low in negative territory. The aggressive interest rate hike took many analysts amd investots by surprise as most were expecting a rise of only 25 basis points.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) raised its key policy rates by 50 basis points yesterday to bring the overnight borrowing rate to 5.75% and the overnight lending to 7.75%. It has tightened policy for the second month in a row as the BSP also raised rates by 25 basis points last month (the first rate increase in 3 years).
The BSP said that this was necessary to combat inflation that is running at 14-year highs.

PSEi previous close - 2393.62 (July 17)
open - 2399.98
high - 2409.50 (+15.88)
close - 2389.52 (-4.10 or 0.17%)

Value turnover: PhP 2.007 bn
Cross transactions: PhP 892 mn

Advancers 40
Decliners 41
Unchanged 50

Sectoral Indices.
M-O -1.29%
Property -0.87%
Financial -0.63%
Industrial -0.25%
Holdings +0.47%
Services +0.49%

The Day's Top Gainers:
PO: PhP 2.80; + 27.27%
PA: PhP 0.12; +14.29%
PNB: PhP 26.00; +8.33%

The Day's Biggest Decliners:
WIN: PhP 0.17; -15.00%
FAF: PhP 0.50; -9.09%
BCB: PhP 20.00; -9.09%

At mid-day:
Asian markets were mixed.
The Philippine Peso was at PhP 44.530 vs US$ 1.00.