MANILA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine stock market managed to post positively on Thursday despite threats of the U.S. Federal Reserve's increasing interest rates.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 0.43 percent or 31.11 points to 7,335.56, while the broader all-share index rose by 0.35 percent or 15.56 points to 4,427.27.
Trading volume reached 1.36 billion shares worth 7.27 billion Philippine pesos (144.71 million U.S. dollars) with 92 stocks advancing, 82 declining, and 51 were unchanged.
Two of the six counters were down. These were the mining and oil and the property sectors.
Online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said investors will be focused on the U.S. Fed minutes.
"Implications from the minutes of the Federal Reserve might construe some sell-off for local equities today. According to the minutes, most Fed officials expressed support to raise interest rates fairly soon if the U.S. economy continued to strengthen," it said.
This, in turn, might yield mixed sentiments for local investors, as earnings results, so far, were just in line with expectations, 2TradeAsia.com said.
"Eyes are now on the local central bank as to how the Fed's possible rate hike would affect our local monetary policies," it noted.
Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up. These include BDO Unibank, Inc., Ayala Corp., and JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
