LOCAL stocks sizzled on Friday, lifting the main stock barometer to the 7,400 mark, as investors welcomed the economic agenda unveiled by incoming president Rodrigo Duterte.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index racked up 111.75 points or 1.53 percent to close at a nine-month high of 7,436.79, bucking the downturn across regional markets.

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“The market was pleasantly surprised…There is an economic agenda after all,” said veteran stock broker Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc.

There was P670 million net foreign buying at the local market for the day.

Elsewhere in the region on Friday, stock markets were mostly lower on global growth woes.

At the local market, holding firms – a proxy to the domestic economy – led the PSEi’s rise with its 3.13 percent gain. The financial counter also rallied by 2.29 percent while the industrial counter rose by 1.14 percent. The services counter posted a modest gain.

The mining/oil counter fell by 0.49 percent while property sub-index slipped by 0.14 percent. Duterte did not mention mining in his broad agenda but as mayor, he has banned mining in Davao City.

As the unveiled agenda also vowed to continue and maintain the current macroeconomic policies set by the outgoing administration led by Pres. Aquino, this reduced the continuity risk earlier priced in by investors. Duterte’s camp also pledged to accelerate infrastructure spending using the public-private partnership program.

Adopting a stance long sought by investors, Duterte’s camp also vowed to address the restrictive economic policies in the Constitution and laws in enhancing the competitive of doing business.

On Friday, value turnover at the stock market amounted to P12.89 billion. There were 112 advancers that edged out 78 decliners while 49 stocks were unchanged.

Investors loaded up on shares of AC and Metrobank, which both rose by over 5 percent and were the most actively traded stock in the market. JG Summit and Petron both rallied by over 4 percent while SMIC and Megaworld surged by 3.43 percent.

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GTCAP, MPI and Jollibee all gained over 2 percent while ALI also contributed a modest gain.

Although not part of the PSEi, Security Bank rose by 5.83 percent as it was included in the main MSCI Philippines index. At MSCI’s small cap index, three companies were added – Xurpas, Bloomberry and Century Pacific Food.

Another notable gainer outside of the PSEi was community mall developer DoubleDragon, which surged by 13.43 percent on optimism that Duterte’s greater attention to development in Visayas and Mindanao will boost this company’s business.

On the other hand, SM Prime tumbled by 4.42 percent while PLDT slipped by 1.15 percent.

Since the start of the year, the PSEi has gained by 6.97 percent.

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