PH Stocks Extend Rally

PHStocks 02/05/201303/05/2013 0 Comments ABS-CBN, ABSP, AGI, ALI, Alliance Global, Ayala Land, CEI, CLOUD, Crown Equities, Easycall, ECP, EG, green, Greenergy, Highlands Prime, HLCM, Holcim, HP, IMP, Imperial Resources, investment grade, investment grade rating, IP Converge, IP E-Game, iRipple, LC, LCB, Lepanto Consolidated, LMG, LMG Chemicals, Mabuhay Holdings, Mabuhay Vinyl, MHC, MVC, OPM, OPMB, ore, Oriental Peninsula, Oriental Petroleum, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., PLDT, RPL, S&P, SM, SM Investments, SMIC, sovereign rating, Standard & Poor's, SUN, Suntrust, TEL, Touch Solutions, TSI, Vivant, VVT

Manila—(PHStocks)—Philippine stocks extended their growth for the fifth straight session as investors anticipate another investment grading for the country’s sovereign ratings. The mainboard Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index gained 0.32% or 22.43 points to close at 7,093.42 today, 2 May – reversing an early morning slide wherein investors cashed in on their gains over the previous days’ market performance.

The Services index led the gaining sectors, edging higher by 1.47%, followed by the Industrials, which gained 0.52%. The Mining and Oil index, on the other hand, slid by 1.46%, while the Property sector dropped by 0.85%.

Overall, trading was moderate. The wider All Shares index just gained 0.34% to close the day’s trading at 4,424.59. Value turnover reached PhP8.6 billion, while the volume of shares traded hit 7.54 billion. There were 103 gainers against 68 losers, while 36 stocks remained flat.

2nd investment grade rating

A quarter of an hour after the close of the market session, Standard & Poor’s handed Philippines its second investment grade rating, citing the country’s strengthening external profile, moderating inflation, and its declining reliance on foreign currency debt.

In a statement, S&P noted: “We are raising our sovereign credit ratings on the Philippines to ‘BBB-/A-3’ from ‘BB+/B’. We are also raising our long-term ASEAN regional scale rating on the Philippines to ‘axA-‘ from ‘axBBB+’ and the transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘.”

According to S&P, the stable outlook balances the policy flexibility afforded by current account surpluses and low deficits and inflation against the difficulties of alleviating the numerous structural impediments to higher growth.

Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Agost Benard added: “We expect the country to move into a near-balanced external position because of persistent current account surpluses, in which large net transfers from Filipinos working abroad more than offset ongoing trade deficits.”

Today’s best performers

The most active stocks in terms of value today are SM Investments Corporation (SMIC, PSE: SM), Alliance Global Group Inc. (PSE: AGI), ABS-CBN Holdings Corporation – Phil. Deposit Receipts (PSE: ABSP), Ayala Land Inc. (PSE: ALI), and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT, PSE: TEL).