MANILA, Philippines — Philippine stocks ended the lunar year with a bang to settle at another all-time high, as positive news both here and abroad spurred strong foreign inflows.

The benchmark PSEi rose 47.53 points or 1.01 percent to close at its intra-day and historical high of 4,747.90, breaking the record set just the day before.

The Philippine Stock Exchange noted that the market rally in the last four days has boosted its market capitalization by 1.4 percent, adding P125.38 billion in value, to a total of P9 trillion.

“The market appears to be enjoying favorable financial and economic indicators that continue to support the market’s rallies,” PSE president Hans B. Sicat said.

Accord Capital Equities analyst Justino Calaycay Jr. said the PSEi rewrote historic highs for the fifth time in the last nine days “despite trading in technically overbought territory… driven by the lack of negative news to compel a liquidation even as we head into an extended weekend.”

Investor sentiment was buoyed by the recent interest rate cut and expectations of a credit rating upgrade as well as optimism over the global economy as fewer Americans than forecast filed claims for jobless benefits while Spain and France sold bonds at lower yields.

The central bank’s interest rate cut and statement that it may consider more monetary policy easing bolstered the outlook for domestic spending, said CitisecOnline.com analyst Richard Laneda.

Expectations of higher spending boosted consumer stocks such as Jollibee Foods Corporation and mall developers SM Prime Holdings and Robinsons Land Corporation.

Lower rates are also seen to benefit property developers such as Megaworld Corporation, Ayala Land And Vista Land.

Mining issues also surged as the rise of copper to a four month high pushed up the share prices of Atlas Consolidated Mining and Philex Mining. Speculative play on NiHAO propelled the firm to be the day’s top gainer, rising 13.05 percent to P6.67 per share.

Rising investments in local stocks are seen as a sign of growing confidence in President Benigno Aquino’s plan to boost economic growth to a level that may exceed China’s expansion.

Bloomberg News reports, foreign investors bought $1.1 billion of Philippine shares in the past two months, the most since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 1999. The PSEi rose 9.2 percent in the period, the most among benchmark equity gauges in emerging markets.

The last time Philippine stock purchases by foreign investors approached current levels was in July 2007, just as the Philippine stock index entered a bear market, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“The story of the Philippines is that it’s getting re- rated by the market for its resilient, domestic driven economy,” said Paul Joseph Garcia, who helps manage about $15.3 billion at Manila-based Bank of the Philippine Islands. “Consumer spending will grow at a healthy clip this year on the back of aggressive government pump priming.”

A potential credit-rating upgrade by S&P will spur further gains in stocks, according to Rico Gomez, a money manager at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

“A ratings upgrade will allow investors to re-rate the market,” said Gomez, who helps manage about $1.5 billion and favors infrastructure and property stocks. “That could push the index to go beyond 5,000 within the year and sustain valuations.”

BDO Unibank chief market strategist Jonathan Ravelas said that, “chart-wise, it appears that a new support level has now been set at 4,600. We expect the index to move sideways between the 4,600 - 4,800 range in the week ahead.”

Calaycay noted that, “from the vantage point of technical considerations, we will welcome a correction to at least 4,650-70. The sooner it happens, the better it may be for investors who could reasonably look to sell at rallies and reposition portfolio either on the same issues at lower prices, or pick up those that have lagged the market’s advance.”