Stock market bucks Asian rout on bargain hunting

March 30--PHILIPPINE share prices on Monday posted gains to break past a key resistance level on bargain hunting and end-of-quarter window dressing. At the Philippine Stock Exchange, the composite index rose 38.17 points, or 0.8 percent to 3,913.98, the first breach of the 3,900 level in over two weeks.

The broader all-shares index added 25.05 points, or 0.86 percent to 2,949.15. All subindices were in the green with the holding firms' counter leading the pack with a gain of 1.4 percent.

Gainers beat losers, 78 to 40, while 46 stocks were unchanged. A total of 985.61 million stocks worth P4.26 billion changed hands.

"Against a general backdrop of pessimism reflected on midday slides in most Asian markets, Philippine equities rose rather convincingly, breaking past the upper limit of a resistance range," said Jun Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp.

"Bargain hunting and positioning for quarter-end window dressing was the overriding influence," he said.

The index also breached the 50-day moving average, an indication of more gains for the medium term, despite the general weakness of Asian stocks amid the ongoing tension in Libya and Japan's continuous struggle to stabilize a leaking nuclear reactor.

Corporate window dressing will remain the main theme of trades as the month comes to a close, but this will have no impact on expectations of firms' first quarter earnings, which have been tempered by recent global events.

"With such events still left unresolved, the near-term optimism must be welcomed with the necessary amount of caution," said Calaycay. The main index's next resistance level is at 3,960.

Asian currencies, including the peso, were mostly lower against the dollar Monday as investors feared the nuclear crisis in Japan will dampen economic recovery.

Traders added that the continued political tension in Libya contributed to the heightened risk aversion.

At the Philippine Dealing System, the dollar-peso exchange rate shed 14.5 centavos to close at 43.45 from last Friday's 43.305 finish.

The pair opened at 43.37 and moved to a high of 43.35 and a low of 43.32 averaging at 43.35 at the end of the morning session.

Trading volume reached $482.67 million, slightly up from $478.32 million last Friday.

Traders expect the dollar-peso pair to trade at a range of 43.20 to 43.60 with bias leaning on a stronger dollar.

With report from Lailany P. Gomez

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