THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said the country’s benchmark index hit all-time intraday highs and broke records under President Benigno S.C. Aquino III’s administration.
“I fondly recall the time when I used to personally send stock market updates to President Aquino each time the market breached new milestones,” PSE Chairman Jose T. Pardo said in a statement.
Barely three months since Mr. Aquino took office in July 2010, the 30-member PSE index (PSEi) broke past the 4,000-mark, reaching an intraday high of 4,011.27 on Sept. 14.
Two days later, the PSEi closed at 4,005.46.
The bellwether index also breached the 5,000 to 8,000 levels during the Aquino administration. The PSEi first closed above these levels at 5,016.30 on March 2, 2012, finished at 6,044.91 on Jan. 7, 2013, closed at 7,120.48 on April 22, 2013, and climbed to 8,053.74 on April 6, 2015.
In Mr. Aquino’s six-year term from 2010 to 2016, the PSEi surged 135.2%.
The main index also rose to all-time intraday highs 131 times and reached an all-time high at the close 119 times, breaching all-time-high records for seven consecutive days at most.
“We have to give credit to PNoy and his good governance drive which promoted political stability and transparency that translated well in market’s strong performance,” Mr. Pardo said about the former president who is also referred to as PNoy.
The PSE also recorded the highest net foreign buying under Mr. Aquino’s term, logging P109.98 billion net purchases in 2012.
The year 2012 also saw the highest capital-raising activity at the PSE amounting to P219.07 billion from initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, stock rights offerings, and private placements, sans sales of secondary shares.
The highest total value turnover reported is at P2.55 trillion and the highest average daily value turnover at P10.52 billion, both of which were recorded in 2013. The local bourse started having electronic data of these in 1998.
“All these stock market records during President Aquino’s time served as a strong testament to the level of investor confidence in his governance. The strong macroeconomic fundamentals served as the ideal backdrop for foreign and domestic investors to raise capital and invest in the Philippine stock market,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said.
Mr. Aquino led a number of bell-ringing ceremonies at the PSE to commemorate record highs of the stock market.
When he stepped down from office on June 30, 2016, the PSEi closed at 7,796.25.
Mr. Aquino, 61, died on Thursday, June 24, because of renal failure due to diabetes. He passed on peacefully in his sleep, people close to him said.
He was laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon next to his parents, democracy icons Corazon C. Aquino and Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte
