Record P67-B capital raised in Q1, says PSE

MANILA, Philippines - Capital raised from the local stock market hit an all-time high of P67.04 billion in the first quarter of the year, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said yesterday.

This amount was raised from initial public offerings, stock rights offerings, private placements or follow-on offerings.

PSE president and chief executive officer Hans Sicat is hopeful more capital will be raised throughout the year which will allow the exchange to achieve its target to raise around P200 billion.

“Our first quarter numbers are off to a good start. They provide strong basis for our target of six to eight IPOs and around P200 billion worth of capital raised this year. We hope the additional fund-raising mechanisms we have worked on in the past months will provide further support to our targets,” Sicat said.

The PSE recently released its rules on the listing of dollar denominated securities and public private partnership projects.

The first DDS listing was made by Del Monte Pacific Ltd. last April 7, successfully raising $200 million.

According to the PSE, other stock market metrics were also up at the end of the first quarter.

The benchmark PSE index advanced 6.9 percent to 7,311.72 while the All Shares index was higher by 5.9 percent. All sectoral indices also ended in positive territory.

The services sector showed the biggest growth, posting a gain of 19.13 percent. The financials index came next, reporting a 10-percent growth followed by the holding firms and industrial sectors which were up at 6.5 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

The property sector rose 1.9 percent while the mining and oil sector eked out a gain of one percent.