Stocks snap downtrend on low inflation results

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine stocks managed a comeback on the last day of the week, after five straight days of trading in the red, after the government reported that inflation continued to slow down.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index rallied to 7,704.60 yesterday, up 159.05 points or 2.10 percent.

Likewise, the broader All Shares index rose to 4,675.60, up 71.59 points or 1.55 percent.

All sectors recovered, marking a strong green finish for all indexes.

Among the sectors, the financials rose the highest with a 3.03 percent gain followed by property and mining and oil.

Total value turnover, on the other hand, was thin at P5.076 billion even as market breadth was remarkably positive, 112 to 60, while 46 issues were unchanged.

“The slowdown in September inflation to 0.9 percent fuelled yeterday’s rally, bringing the local market up by 159.05 points (2.10 percent) at 7,704.60. Volume and value turnover registered 420.38 million and P5.08 billion, respectively. Banks led a broad-based advance, with advancers edging losers, 112 to 60,” said Philstocks Financials.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported yesterday that inflation, or the increase in prices of consumers goods, continued to decline, slowing down to a 40-month low of 0.9 percent in September.

The figure is lower than the 1.7 percent increase recorded in August and is well within the estimates of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“Contributing primarily to the downtrend in the inflation during the month was the 0.9 percent annual rate of decrease in the index of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages. Likewise, the annual change of the transport index decreased further by 0.9 percent in September 2019,” Philstocks added.