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MANILA, Philippines—The local stock market surged to new record highs on Friday as investors gobbled up local equities in anticipation of strong first-quarter corporate results and an investment grade rating from a second global creditwatcher.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index rallied by 1.45 percent or 99.62 points to close at its best finish of 6,957.10, likewise a record intra-day peak. The upswing in the last three days allowed the main index to post a weekly gain of 65.67 points or 0.95 percent.
Property stocks led the day’s rally as this counter surged by 2.21 percent. All other indices were likewise up.
Turnover amounted to P12.13 billion.
There were 108 advancers against 44 decliners while 55 stocks were unchanged.
SMIC (+1.35 percent) and BDO (+3.61 percent) rose in heavy volume after BDO announced a record high P10-billion net profit for the first quarter and a hefty P20.4 billion profit forecast for the full year.
Manny Cruz, chief strategist at Asiasec Equities, said investors were positioning for strong first-quarter results and that BDO’s strong first-quarter performance offered a good preview.
At the same time, Cruz said, there was speculation that the Philippines would soon get a second investment-grade rating, maybe even ahead of the mid-term elections in May.
Before the Lenten break, Fitch Ratings gave the Philippine government its first investment-grade rating. Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s currently rate the country at one notch below investment grade but S&P has a positive outlook on its rating.
Other big index gainers were Globe (+4.92 percent), AGI (+3.96 percent), Belle (+3.9 percent), ALI (+3.6 percent), PLDT (+3.52 percent), RLC (+2.2 percent), JG Summit (+1.66 percent) and Meralco (+1.4 percent).
On the other hand, there was profit-taking on Bloomberry, DMCI, AEV, ICTSI and AP.
Outside of the PSEi, investors also pocketed gains from LTG (-3.10 percent) after the latter’s warmly received follow-on public offering.
A low-interest rate environment is likewise driving more investors towards equities. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is widely expected to slash rates on special deposit accounts during its next policy rate setting next week.