Mar 27, 2013

PSE index treks to new record high on historic investment rating upgrade

The Philippine Stock Exchange main index (PSEi) set a new all-time high on Wednesday, driven by the positive sentiment generated by the Fitch Ratings upgrade of the Philippines' sovereign ratings to investment grade status.

The PSEi closed higher for the fifth straight session at 6,847.47 surpassing its finish of 6,835.21 last March 6. The benchmark index also gained 182.35 points during the day, its highest one-day point increase since August 21, 2007, while percentage-wise, the 2.7 percent rise was the biggest since May 17, 2012.
 
Intraday, the PSEi reached another record level at 6,873.89, beating the previous record level of 6,867.10 achieved on March 11, 2013.

Year-to-date the PSEi has grown by 17.8 percent or 1,034.74 points. The main index has also recorded new closing highs by a total of 24 times in 2013.

"We are now officially an investment grade country with this upgrade by the Fitch Ratings agency and this is an achievement that we all should be proud of.  We have been talking about this in the past 12 months and we think it is well deserved.  Hopefully, the other rating agencies will follow suit so we can start seeing more investors participate in the growth of our listed companies and the economy," PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Hans B. Sicat said.