Stocks surged for the second session on Thursday, as the Philippine Stock Exchange index closed at 7,209.44 up 178.49 points or a gain of 2.54 percent. It was a two-month high for the index.

Volume reached 1.33 billion shares valued at P10.28 billion from Wednesday’s turnover of 1.38 billion shares valued at P7.59 billion. Foreign buying amounted to P5.8 billion while foreign selling reached P5.07 billion.

The peso improved to P49. 46 from Thursday’s P49.65. Volume rose to $879 million from Wednesday’s $529.50 million.DMS