Local shares surge on upbeat Q1 earnings

MANILA, Philippines — Local shares surged on Thursday on the back of upbeat corporate earnings despite inflation and rate worries that have clouded investor sentiment in the past moths. 

The Philippine Stock Exchange index soared 1.15% to close at 6,520.44 on Thursday. The broader All Shares index inched up 0.7% while most subindices landed in the green. Shares in the financials sub-index led the upswelling of positive sentiment, moving up 2.52%.

Luis Limlingan, head of sales at local brokerage Regina Capital, said corporate earnings were king on Thursday. 

“The bulls were hailed as the victors in the local bourse as investors digest 1Q23 corporate earnings,” he said in a Viber message. 

Earnings reports from publicly-listed firms of their performance in the first quarter as well as annual stockholder meetings are top of mind for many investors these days.

Hernan Segovia, trader at Summit Securities, attributed some of the surge to the earnings performance of the country’s largest lender. 

“Earlier today it suddenly went alive when BDO opened with a huge gap due to its fantastic earnings. I know it's too early to call that our market is back, but at least, today's feat is something to cheer about,” Segovia said. 

Regional equities were a mixed bag. Markets swung mostly lower in Asian trade, with Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Wellington, Bangkok and Taipei down, while London, Paris and Frankfurt opened lower. But Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Mumbai edged up.

At home, foreign investors bought P508.16 million more shares than they sold in the local stock market. A total of 583.9 million stocks, valued at P3.82 billion, switched hands on Thursday.  — Ramon Royandoyan with AFP