MANILA, Philippines — Three publicly-listed companies perceived to have ties with the Marcos family rallied a day after the May 9 presidential elections amid a looming return to power of the country's most notorious political dynasty.
Prime Media Holdings Inc., Araneta Properties Inc. and PhilWeb Corp. were among the biggest gainers on Tuesday after seeing their share prices jump by over 30% each.
The three companies defied a downturn in the main index, which managed to temper big losses in the morning trade to close lower by 0.58%.
Sought for comment, Michael Enriquez, chief investment officer at Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corp, said the results of elections likely triggered a buying spree for these stocks.
"Some investors are already speculating that these companies may be advantaged with their association with the leading candidate," Enriquez said in a Viber message.
Aniceto Pangan, equities trader at Diversified Securities, agreed with Enriquez. "Marcos (is) leading the unofficial and partial returns in the presidential tally thus affiliated companies are benefitting in the race," he said.
Partial, unofficial tally showed Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leading by a wide margin over his rivals, including incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo who is perceived by the market as a more qualified candidate to shore up the economy to recovery based on a Bloomberg poll of investors and analysts in March.
READ: Global investment bank sees Robredo as more 'market-friendly' president than Marcos Jr.
Prime Media, a holding company for media properties, is owned by Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos. Shares in the company ended the trading day up 38.89%.
Araneta Properties, a company incorporated on June 15, 1988, is owned by Gregorio Ma. Araneta III, husband of Marcos’ sister, Irene. On Tuesday, the company’s stocks rallied 30.77% each.
Lastly, gaming technology provider PhilWeb is also owned by Araneta after buying a majority stake in the company from Roberto Ongpin, a former crony of the Marcos patriarch who served as the late dictator’s trade minister. Shares in PhilWeb surged 30.97% at the end of the trading day.