Stocks surged on the penultimate day of trading on Wednesday as the main index jumped 188.24 points.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 2.83 percent to end at 6,846.44.

Volume reached 1.03 billion shares valued at P3.45 billion from Tuesday’s 491.5 million shares valued at P 3.28 billion.

Foreign buying reached P1.79 billion while foreign selling amounted to P1.52 billion compared to Tuesday’s foreign buying of P1.29 billion and foreign selling of P1.37 billion.

The peso closed a bit lower at P49.815 against the US dollar from Tuesday’s P49.810. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System reached $288.30 million from $209.50 on Tuesday. DMS