PSE trading floor, head office shut for decontamination

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) shut down its trading floor and head office in Bonifacio Global City for decontamination on Wednesday after an employee tested positive for the new coronavirus.

But the 24-hour closure did not affect trading, as traders were equipped to conduct offsite business, PSE president Ramon Monzon said in an advisory.

The bourse gave assurance that its business operations would not be hampered by the closure because its employees were working from home.

The PSE said it had begun tracing the people with whom the employee had close contact on the bourse’s premises.

No contact with guests

The employee was in the PSE building during the stock market debut of retailer MerryMart Consumer Corp. on June 15, but did not go to the trading floor or the brokers’ lounge where the VIP guests were.

Among the people present during the event were MerryMart chair Edgar Sia II, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Philippine National Bank president Wick Veloso and a few journalists.

The PSE assured Sia that the employee did not encounter guests. It said it would announce significant developments on the matter.

The bourse carried out full offsite trading from March 19 to May 29 in compliance with lockdown measures imposed by the government to halt the spread of the new coronavirus in the Philippines.

It reopened the trading floor on June 1 with the relaxation of quarantine rules in Metro Manila.