Index soars on new credit rating upgrade

MANILA, Philippines - The fresh credit rating upgrade on the Philippines and strong corporate earnings carried the main index to its best performance in nearly a year.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index rallied 1.21 percent or 82.05 points to 6,847.26, marking its best performance since ending at 6,875.60 on June 10, 2013. The broader all shares index jumped 0.88 percent or 35.77 points to close at 4,116.06.

“We broke the 6,800 resistance owing to the surprise upgrade made by Standard & Poor’s. It was more of local news plus the positive performance in Wall Street,” Freya B. Natividad, an investment analyst at Papa Securities Corp., said in a phone interview.

Investors flocked to blue chips like PLDT (+2.76 percent), SM Investments Corp., (+2.82 percent), Ayala Land Inc. (+3.23 percent) and SM Prime Holdings Inc. (+0.83 percent).

Late on Thursday, the Philippines received a one-notch credit upgrade to BBB “with a stable outlook” from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services – the highest the country has received so far from any credit ratings firm. The debt watcher noted the Philippines’ gains in government revenue generation, spending efficiency, and the improvements in public debt profile and investment environment.

For its part, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 percent or 32.43 points to 16,550.97 while S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined.

The local bourse also bucked Asian markets that ended the week mixed due to continuing tensions in Ukraine. Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.25 percent or 35.81 points to 14,199.59.