MANILA – Another record was broken on Wednesday’s trading at the Philippines Stock Exchange as the benchmark index reached a new high of 6,527.99 points, or 1.05 percent higher than on the previous day. One reason for this rally has been the influx of Hong Kong and Singapore investors rushing in after the Chinese New Year.
Stocks were high across the board, with the property sector leading the charge – rising 61.17 to end the day at 2,649.68 points. Shares of Ayala Land Inc., a leading real estate firm leaped by 4.58 percent while Megaworld Corp. advanced 3.86 percent. According to Joseph Roxas (Eagle Equities) the main index is set to rise higher in the near future.
LONDON – The buzzword at the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday was “Oil and Gas sector”, or so it seemed. Tullow Oil made the most gains, rising by 80p to £12.60. Not to be left behind, oil and gas exploration and service providers like Petrofac, Nostra Terra Oil and Gas, engineering firm Weir Group – mostly involved in supplying equipment for the hydrocarbon sector, along with coal firm Bumi all advanced considerably. Despite these gains, Sirius Minerals faltered to 25p, while AG Barr and Britvic both stuttered late in the day due to the Office of Fair Trading’s decision to refer their merger case to the Competition Commission.[newsletter1][/newsletter1]
KARACHI – During Wednesday’s trading, oil and gas, banking, cement and telecommunications sectors all enjoyed healthy gains, but it was PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited) that stole the limelight. PTCL’s stock surged due to a higher than expected profits announcements.
Rising by 85.05 points, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed the day at 17,646.45 points on Wednesday. Amongst the other major gainers were Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, oil and gas major OGDC, NIB Bank, and government-owned airline PIA. Earnings announcements from banks in the coming days are expected to prop up banking sector shares for the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the Pakistani Rupee continued its downward plunge against the USD, leading to an increase in the stock prices for Pakistani oil and gas companies. Oil prices have surged in the international market, and with a depreciating Rupee, the prices of oil and gas sector shares at the KSE have only rocketed up.
MUMBAI – At the BSE, stocks ended marginally higher on Wednesday at 19,615.56 points, up by 54.52 points. MSS Limited, Mphasis Limited and CRISIL Limited dominated the chart of top ‘gainers’. Falling by a whopping 8.49%, Unite Breweries Limited was the greatest loser. Reliance Capital and Suzlon Energy also plunged by more than 5% apiece to cap off the list of biggest ‘losers’ during the day.
Banking and property sectors performed poorly, falling by 45.46 points and 19.84 points, respectively.
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