THE main index returned to red territory on Friday, dropping to the 7,300 level on the back of a technical pullback.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT pledges received by the country’s investment promotion agencies (IPAs) surged to a record high in 2019, data by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

MORE FOREIGN CAPITAL flowed out of the Philippines than what entered in January as investors opted to put their money in safer havens in a month which saw geopolitical uncertainties, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and regulatory risk in the local market.

MORE DOLLARS went out of the country in January, driving the balance of payments (BoP) to deficit after six months of surplus, on the back of foreign loan payments, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

QUEZON CITY Mayor Maria Josefina “Joy” G. Belmonte vowed to grant necessary permits for the construction of the Metro Manila subway “after compliance with all the application requirements.”

METRO PACIFIC Hospital Holdings, Inc. (MPHHI) is investing P250 million in a hospital operator in Los Baños, Laguna as part of boosting its hospital network.

PRIVATE concessionaire San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will present on Feb. 28 a new design proposal for the above-ground area of the Quezon Memorial Circle (QMC) station of the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7) project, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) said.

SEOUL — The stark inequality between two South Korean families portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Parasite might make viewers uncomfortable but it was the “only path” to revealing cold reality, the film’s director, Bong Joon-ho, said on Wednesday.

PARASITE executive producer Miky Lee became an unlikely star of the 2020 Oscars when she accepted the award for best picture, praising director Bong Joon-ho and her brother Lee Jay-hyun.

METROPOLITAN BANK & Trust Co. (Metrobank) saw its net income surge by double digits in 2019 on the back of solid growth in operating revenues, moderate loan growth and margin expansion.

WITHIN SEVERAL floors and across several rooms in the former Philippine Stock Exchange building in Ortigas sits an animation studio that has done work for many series including all the seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (and part of Hasbro’s 2017 film My Little Pony: The Movie) and the revamped Tom and Jerry series from season 2 onwards. Now that the company is celebrating its 20^th year in the business, Top Draw Animation is setting its sights towards bigger projects for bigger studios — and that means the US.

THE House committee on civil service and professional regulation approved Wednesday a substitute bill seeking to grant regular status and civil service eligibility to contractual, job-order, and casual government employees.