PSE index ends at new all-time record

October 4, 2017

Stocks shrugged off the World Bank's lower growth forecast for the Philippines with the key index finishing at a new all-time high on Wednesday. The Philippine Stock Exchange index closed at 8,344.05, up 31.12 from Tuesday. In the broader market, there were 106 gainers, 88 decliners and 62 issues unchanged. Volume reached 2.47 billion shares worth P6.56 billion. The World Bank cut growth forecast for the Philippines to 6.6 percent from its earlier 6.9 percent, citing slow pace of government projects. But Aniceto Pangan, a trader at Diversified Securities, said the market is looking at the progress of the tax reform package. "If the market will be able to get a higher revenue from the Senate tax reform program, it will be positive," he told ABS-CBN News. Pangan, who foresees the PSE index ending at 8,600 for the year, said "if  international market continues to move up, with infra and tax reform, markets would continue to be in the positive." Most actively traded shares were led by BDO Unibank, up 2.12 percent to P135, PXP Energy Corp., up 4.2 percent to P8.19 and PLDT, up 2.41 percent to P1.700. The peso closed at P51 against the US dollar from P51.05. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System reached $761.75 million from $792.80 million.  DMS