Shares of broadcasting giant ABS-CBN Corp. rebounded by 20.44 percent on Thursday on speculation that a shutdown might be averted by a last-minute push in Congress to pass a law renewing its franchise.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), meantime, climbed to the 7,400 level.
The main-share PSEi added 16.06 points or 0.22 percent to close at 7,413 as investors picked up clues from the ongoing fourth quarter 2019 corporate reporting season. Elsewhere in the region, trading sentiment showed mixed results.
ABS-CBN, which is not part of the PSEi, recouped P3.70 to close at P21.80 per share. It is now trading at only 5.5 percent away from the 52-week high of P23 per share.
Veteran stock broker Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities, said the investing public digested the signal from Malacañang that it would allow Congress to take up ABS-CBN’s franchise application.
He said recent pronouncements seemed to show that there might still be time to pass the franchise bill before the current license expires on March 30. Congress, for its part, was set to adjourn session in mid-March.
The Congress is supposed to be an independent branch of the government. Late last year, President Duterte said he would not allow the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, still mad over the non-airing of political ads back in 2016 when he was campaigning for the presidential race.
Total value turnover amounted to P5.79 billion. Local hands kept the market steady while foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of P533 million.
There were 90 advancers that edged out 84 decliners, while 54 stocks were unchanged.
The PSEi was led higher by Metrobank, which rose by 2.71 percent. This was after the bank reported a 27-percent growth in 2019 net profit to P28.1 billion.
Jollibee rebounded by 2.17 percent, while SM Prime and Security Bank both added over 1 percent.
Ayala Land, BDO, ICTSI, Megaworld, GT Capital and Metro Pacific all added less than 1 percent.