Philippine stocks lead regional rally on Q4 growth data

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange index rallied yesterday, emerging as the biggest gainer in the region after investors scrambled back to the market following a faster fourth quarter economic growth.

The stock market barometer gained by 147.62 points, or 1.97 percent, to close at 7,616.35, a marked improvement from a sour opening this week.

The broader All Shares index likewise gained 67.41 points, or 1.51 percent, to finish at 4,504.20.

All the other gauges finished strong as well with the industrial, holding firms and property indexes rallying as well.

This came after the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the economy continued to accelerate in the last quarter of 2019 to 6.4 percent from the revised six percent in the previous quarter and 6.3 percent in the last quarter of 2018.

This was in line with the median forecast of the private sector.

Compared with other major economies in the region that have already released their GDP growth in the fourth quarter, the Philippines likely ranked second only behind Vietnam’s seven percent, and higher than China’s six percent growth rate in the fourth quarter,” the PSA said.

The market rallied and ignored the slower numbers for the full-year.

The economy slowed to 5.9 percent in 2019, the slowest in eight years and slightly below the low-end of the six  to 6.5 percent revised target of the government for the year.

“Bargain hunting amid a faster fourth quarter GDP growth sent the local market higher yesterday,” Philstocks Financials said.

But foreign selling still prevailed at P4.1 billion over foreign buying of P4 billion or a net foreign selling of P133 million.

Total value turnover reached P6.628 billion. Market breadth was positive, 117 gainers against 73 losers while 50 issues were left unchanged.