A Catholic priest celebrates a Mass before the start of the first day of trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange at the financial district of Makati on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. Local stocks began 2013 trading with an all-time high finish on Wednesday, riding on the global euphoria arising from a fresh US budget deal that avoided the US’ fall into a much-feared fiscal cliff. AP PHOTO/AARON FAVILA
MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks began 2013 trading with an all-time high finish on Wednesday, riding on the global euphoria arising from a fresh US budget deal that avoided the US’ fall into a much-feared fiscal cliff.
On the first day of 2013 trade, tycoon Henry Sy’s SM Investments also surpassed Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. as the most valuable company in the local stock market. As of Wednesday’s close, SMIC was valued by the market at P549.46 billion versus PLDT’s market capitalization of P546.62 billion.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index ended at a record close of 5,860.99, up by 48.26 points, or 0.8 percent.
“World markets have cheered the photo-finish resolution of the fiscal cliff in the US. We’re off to a good start in 2013,” PSE president and chief executive officer Hans Sicat said in a press statement.
The latest closing level surpassed the previous all-time high finish of 5,832.83 posted last Dec. 26 and neared the intraday peak of 5,866.83 posted on Dec. 13, 2012. For the whole of 2012, the PSEi finished at 5,812.73, rising by 33 percent from the end-2011 level. It hit record closing highs 38 times last year.
“In 2013, we will once again be challenged to become better and to push the market to even greater heights. Our plans for the Exchange and stock market have been laid out and I assure you that there is great reason to be excited again this year,” Sicat said.
Value turnover was low at P4.35 billion as some investors are still on a post-New Year holiday to take advantage of the shortened trading week. There were 128 advancers, which overwhelmed 46 decliners for the day.
The day’s biggest index gainers were MPI, URC, Jollibee, ICTSI, SMIC, FGEN, AC, DMCI, SMDC and PLDT. SMIC, considered by many as the “bellwether” of the local stock market, gained 2 percent to close at P900 per share while PLDT also went up by 1.19 percent to P2,560 per share.