Manila: Bargain-hunting reversed the slide of the local bourse's main index on Wednesday, while the peso closed almost unchanged against the greenback. A day after declining to below 6,000-level, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 0.48 percent to end the trading at 6,004.70 points, but the broader All Shares went down by 0.79 percent to 3,546.65 points.

According to Philippines News Agency, most of the sectoral gauges tracked the main index, led by Property after it jumped 1.31 percent. It was trailed by Financials, which increased by 1.24 percent; Services, rising by 0.84 percent; Mining and Oil, gaining 0.10 percent; and Industrial, edging up by 0.07 percent. In contrast, only Holding Firms finished in the negative territory after it fell by 1.31 percent.

Volume reached 1.19 billion shares amounting to PHP12.25 billion. Advancers and decliners were even at 89 each, while 66 shares were unchanged. Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, traced the PSEi's rise to bargain hunting and the firm performance of the local currency against the US dollar. "These factors contributed to renewed buying interest in today's session," he said.

The local unit ended the day's trade at 58.84 against the US dollar from its 58.91 close a day ago. It opened on Wednesday at a better level at 58.83 from the previous session's 58.93. It traded between 58.87 and 58.75, bringing the average for the day at 58.83. Volume went down to USD944 million from the previous day's USD1.17 billion.