MANILA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Bargain hunting coupled with a positive growth forecast for the Philippines pulled up the local stock market back to the 6,400 level.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 1.57 percent or 99.18 points to end Thursday at 6,407.36. The broader all-share index gained 1.58 percent or 60.95 points to 3,919.60.

Trading volume reached 862 million shares worth 7.15 billion pesos (170 million U.S. dollars) with 106 stocks advancing, 40 declining and 43 unchanged.

All six counters were up, led by the property sector.

Analysts said the latest growth forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) boosted sentiment. The IMF said Wednesday that it expects Philippine economy to grow by as much as 7 percent due to domestic demand supported by remittances. This is an upgrade from its initial 6 percent outlook.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said that what most investors saw recently was an "overreaction" to anticipations of the Federal Reserve's action on the bond purchase program in light of improving U.S. economic numbers, which eventually shifted to China's slowing growth pace.

"Investor sentiment is very fragile at this point, easily swayed by daily developments and news from overseas. This highlights the fundamental problem the domestic equity market faces -- the scarce leads from the macro-front and very little appreciation for long-term propositions," Calaycay said.

"Overall, we expect the market will keep to its lethargic pace, mostly taking cue from overseas developments," he said.

A more rational market, however, should see the index attempting to break past the 6,500 level, Calaycay said.

Online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said in its daily stock market comment that bargain hunting "seized the market's latest lull."

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly up.