PH stock market rallies as investors see shortlived US gov’t shutdown

PSE index as of 03:46 PM, October 02, 2013

MANILA, Philippines — Local stocks rallied on Wednesday, tracking the rise in Wall Street and regional stocks, as investors bet that the shutdown in the US government would be short and the backlash limited.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index racked up 164.42 points or 2.65 percent to close at 6,362.26. All counters were up but the biggest gainer was the holding firm (+3.09 percent).

PNB Securities deputy chief Manny Lisbona said the market’s behavior on Wednesday seemed to indicate that the Washington shutdown starting Tuesday was a “non-event.”

“Most participants likely took cues from the last time a similar event happened (17 years ago),” Lisbona said.

The last time such a temporary shutdown happened due to a stalemate between legislators and the executive, stocks rallied.

“A key date will be the 17th when measures to allow the US government to borrow money will expire. The US congressional budget office estimates that Oct. 22 may be the first date the government could exhaust all of its reserves and begin missing payments. Markets will be volatile in the coming weeks in this case,” Lisbona said.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.2 billion. There were 99 advancers that beat 46 decliners while 40 stocks were unchanged.

The day’s biggest advancer among PSEi stocks was LTG (+7.26 percent) after last week’s selldown due to concerns on a trademark infringement suit filed by Ginebra San Miguel on its use of “Ginebra Kapitan.” BPI was likewise a big gainer (+5.21 percent) alongside AEV (+4.92 percent) and Jollibee (+4.45 percent). DMCI, SMIC, ICTSI, GTCAP, BDO and Globe Telecom all closed by over 3 percent.

The day’s five most actively traded stocks were URC (+1.25 percent), Metrobank (+0.12 percent), AC (+1.18 percent), PLDT (+1.61 percent) and AGI (+3 percent).

As many of the large-cap stocks were battered in previous days, bargain-hunters took heart from firmer U.S. and regional markets as the Washington shutdown started.