MANILA, Philippines — Local shares seesawed in the first 100 days of the Marcos Jr. administration, but analysts said governance had nothing to with it as external headwinds clouded sentiment.
Ever since President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was inaugurated after a landslide victory at the May polls, the Philippine Stock Exchange index has fallen by as much as 3.6%.
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April Tan, research head at COL Financial, said the PSEi’s movements were simply in reaction to external headwinds.
“Of course the market hasn’t performed well, but it doesn’t have much to do with the new administration but more of rising rates and the weak peso (thanks largely to the Fed),” she said in a Viber message.
Rounding out the list of headwinds abroad were Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, which has pushed up global oil prices.
The global market’s decline has been more pronounced in the past few days. The local bourse entered the bear market territory last week when it plunged 20% since its recent peak. Investors everywhere were plagued with recession fears following the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes.
Michael Enriquez, chief investment officer at Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corp., agreed with Tan’s assessment. But he found some bright spots.
“As our economy continues to recover, we have seen stronger (first half) earnings across companies lead by consumer, property (mall operators) and banking,” he said in a Viber message.
Hernan Segovia, trader at Summit Securities, dissected the market’s performance. The market peaked in August at 6,883. By then, the market gained 12% since the inauguration.
“Unfortunately, we are currently below at inauguration level at 6,140,” he said.
But for Luis Limlingan, head of sales at local brokerage Regina Capital, the PSEi would have fared better under Marcos had it not been for worrying global developments.
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