MANILA, Philippines - The local stock market climbed to a fresh 25-month high on Tuesday and breached its 3,200 psychological resistance level.

As the market tracked the movement in US equities, where the Dow rose to an 18-month high, traders say the quarter end window dressing was made easy by gains in Wall Street overnight.

At the close of the trading session, the Philippine Stock Exchange composite index was up by 8-tenths of a percent or 24 points to 3,202.17.

All the subindices also finished in positive territory, with the holdings, property, and mining and oil sectors all outperforming the gauge.

Advancers edged out decliners, 59 to 40, while 63 issues were unchanged.

Value turnover ballooned to P28.32 billion, but that was on account of 3 block sales in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Among the actively traded stocks were Ayala Corp. and its property arm, Ayala Land Inc., First Philippine holdings Corp. and unit First Gen Corp.

Ayala Corp. added 2.3% to P330.00 per share, a fresh 52-week high for the stock.

Ayala Land rose 3.8% to P13.50 apiece.

Meantime, First Philippine Holdings gained 1.8% to P56.50 per share while First Gen was up 2.3% at P11.00 per share. This occurred after First Gen informed the exchange that its P5-billion bond issue got a rating upgrade from Philippine Ratings Services.