MANILA, Philippines – President Duterte’s chief economic manager has ordered the country’s two state-run pension funds to buy more shares of stocks amid a slump in stock markets here and abroad.

“I have instructed the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS) to take advantage of the low stock prices as well as to support the stock market by at least doubling their daily average purchase volumes of last year,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said Friday.

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Dominguez chairs the Social Security Commission, the SSS’s highest policymaking body.

The latest data on the SSS’s website showed its investments in equities as of September last year stood at P95.7 billion or 18 percent of its P542.4-billion investment level.

In the case of the GSIS, about 20-25 percent of its investment portfolio are in equities.

Last Thursday, P933.35 billion in wealth were wiped out from the local stock market as investors worldwide dumped stocks due to the uncertainty caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

As such, shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 616.99 points or 9.71 percent, closing at 5,736.27 on Thursday.

It was the PSEi’s lowest finish since Dec. 18, 2012, while the percentage decline was the worst since Oct. 27, 2008 when the global financial crisis was in full swing.

GSG

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