The Philippine market stayed on course and up for the fourth day again with a gain of 0.52% as Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) release its monetary rates benchmark policy rate at its lowest level of 2% to support economic recovery in the country. Overnight deposit and lending rates were also maintained at 1.5% and 2.5%, respectively.

PSEI index closed at 6,951.53 level with net foreign selling of -352Million. Foreigners is keeping the index just below 7,000 level with massive selling at pre close period.

For the Blue chips sector, ACEN(4.65%) led the group together with CNVRG (4.65%). CNVRG is the most actively traded stock.

1ACEN 4.65%

2CNVRG 4.29%

3PGOLD 3.74%

4RLC 2.82%

5BDO 2.07%

6AP 1.87%

7AC 1.87%

8RRHI 1.42%

9MBT 1.35%

10GTCAP 1.24%

11SMPH 1.23%

12AGI 1.17%

13MEG 1.06%

14ICT 1.04%

Index sector showed that property and industrial sector led the group.

BSP Kept Interest Rates at its lowest level of 2%

BSP kept its interest rates at the low levels to maintain its support for Philippines economic recovery as the expectation of inflation cause by low supply of commodities will cause prices to spike up in the future. This has been announce yesterday during their briefings.

Central bank governor Benjamin Diokno stated during this press release that “Together with appropriate fiscal and health interventions, keeping a steady hand on the BSP’s policy levers will allow the momentum of economic recovery to gain more traction by helping boost domestic demand and market confidence”.

Last month inflation data peak at 4.9% which is already much higher than the BSP estimate of around 4.4%. Benjamin Diokno has attributed this case due to African swine fever that hit the production of meat products and the continuous effects of the storms that have entered the country.

BSP’s next meeting for policy rates would be in November 18 and December 16 of this year.

PSE market is up again for todays trading by 0.36 % after digesting the news that came out with Asian Development bank with the projected GDP of Philippines to remain the same at 4.5% this year while its peers have been lowered. It however reiterated that the projection is critical as it depends on the pandemic responses being implemented by the government.

The index close at 6915 up by more than 1% during the days trading, but ended with a net foreign selling of -294 Million after foreigners decided to take profits.

For the Blue chip stocks Jollibee led the group as disclosure about its preferred shares gain track, while ACEN continuous its upward movement.

1JFC 3.83%

2ACEN 3.14%

3ALI 2.44%

4MPI 1.88%

5FGEN 1.43%

6MER 1.39%

7AGI 1.18%

8TEL 0.89%

9LTG 0.78%

10BLOOM 0.68%

11BPI 0.67%

12SMC 0.63%

On the Index Sector, Industrial (1.39%) and property (0.95%) companies led the group

Asian Development Bank on GDP Growth

Asian Development Bank growth outlook for the Philippines remains the same at 4.5% this year and it will move to 5.5% in 2022. For the whole of Asia, GDP outlook is 7.1%, South east Asia to 3.1%. ADB cuts its outlook for Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Malaysia expected to grow to 4.7% and Singapore to 6.5%.

Based on ADB’s projections, the Philippines is poised to register the third highest growth in the region, next to Singapore’s 6.5 percent and Malaysia’s 4.7 percent