Investment Grade Rating Fuels PH Stocks Rally

Manila—(PHStocks)—Philippine stocks continued their surge to hit a new record as the country gets its first-ever investment grade rating. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index went up by 2.74% or 182.35 points to reach 6,847.47 today, 27 March, as international credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings upgrades the Philippines to investment grade amid stable outlook.

Fitch upgraded the Philippines’ Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to BBB- from BB+, while the Long-Term Local-Currency IDR has been upgraded to BBB from BBB-. The outlooks on both ratings are Stable. The agency has also upgraded the Country Ceiling to ‘BBB’ from BBB- and the Short-Term Foreign-Currency IDR to F3 from B.

All counters were up except for the Mining and Oil index, which declined by 0.06%. The gainers were led by the Property segment, which grew by 3.88%. The Services sector gained 2.41%, while the Industrials went up by 2.28%. The wider All Shares index, meanwhile, edged higher by 1.7%.

Trading was heavy today, with value turnover reaching PhP12.92 billion on 2.29 billion shares traded. There were 110 gainers and 44 decliners, while 35 stocks remained flat.

Among the most active stocks are BDO Unibank Inc. (PSE: BDO), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT, PSE: TEL), Ayala Corp. (PSE: AC), SM Investments Corporation (SMIC, PSE: SM), and Universal Robina Corporation (PSE: URC).

Below are the top gainers for the day:

• Central Azucarera De Tarlac (PSE: CAT): PhP15.96, +26.27%
• ATN Holdings Inc. “B” (PSE: ATNB): PhP1.17, +17%
• ATN Holdings Inc. “A” (PSE: ATN): PhP1.14, +14%
• Filipino Fund Inc. (PSE: FFI): PhP23.45, +12.74%
• Anchor Land Holdings Inc. (PSE: ALHI): PhP20.95, +10.26%
• Sta. Lucia Land Inc. (PSE: SLI): PhP1.11, +6.73%
• Touch Solutions Inc. (PSE: TSI): PhP19.20, +6.67%
• First Abacus Financial Holdings Corp. (PSE: FAF): PhP0.86, +6.17%
• Manila Water Company Inc. (PSE: MWC): PhP40.00, +6.1%
• Bankard Inc. (PSE: BKD): PhP1.23, +6.03%

Below are the biggest losers:

• GLOBALPORT 900 Inc. (PSE: PORT): PhP10.02, -49.9%
• United Paragon Mining Corporation (PSE: UPM): PhP0.016, -5.88%
• Century Peak Metals Holdings Corporation (PSE: CPM): PhP0.92, -5.15%
• Mabuhay Holdings Corporation (PSE: MHC): PhP0.59, -4.84%
• Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corporation “A” (PSE: OPM): PhP0.02, -4.76%
• Mariwasa Siam Holdings Inc. (PSE: MMI): PhP4.85, -4.72%
• Apex Mining Company Inc. “A” (PSE: APX): PhP4.29, -4.45%
• Nickel Asia Corporation (PSE: NIKL): PhP24.00, -3.81%
• Dizon Copper Silver Mines Inc. (PSE: DIZ): PhP10.28, -3.56%
• Asiabest Group International Inc. (PSE: ABG): PhP19.80, -3.41%