No wild swings seen

The economic team formed by the country’s next president—not their individual personality traits—should be the main focus of investors following voting Monday, the newly elected head of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said.

Hans Sicat, now serving his sixth year as PSE president and CEO, the longest under a unified bourse, said in a briefing that the next leader had no choice but to continue economic reforms, which would help the Philippines grow by about 6 percent this year and possibly more in 2017.

“I think that maybe [election] fears at this stage might be over dramatized,” Sicat said.

“We will have to see the economic team who will be chosen to serve the Cabinet. That will hopefully reinforce whoever wins,” Sicat said. He noted that the economic advisers revealed by the candidates thus far “are all competent.”

“It gives us some comfort that we are unlikely to have any wild swings in economic policy no matter who wins,” Sicat said.

For this week, the national elections “would undoubtedly break the sideways trend of the index,” AB Capital Securities Inc. said in its weekly outlook report. It said a bullish scenario would lead to higher volumes, leading the PSEi to “beyond” the 7,400 level while a bearish outcome might cause the index to fall to the 6,700 level. Miguel R. Camus