Market stays blemish-free in 2025

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market has kept its record blemish-free so far this year, extending its winning streak to three sessions ahead of the release of the country’s December inflation data today.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) opened the week with a 0.32-percent or 21.36-point increase at 6,625.17.

The broader All Shares index also finished in the positive territory, inching up by 0.23 percent or 8.55 points to 3,794.03.

“The PSEi ended higher for the third straight trading day of 2025, up for the sixth day in seven trading days, a day before the latest local inflation data that is expected to slightly pick up from 2.5 percent in November 2024 but still relatively benign and within the BSP’s (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) target of two to four percent, thereby could still support future local policy rate cuts,” RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said.

Ricafort said that the PSEi also continued to gain after US stock markets corrected higher lately after declining for five straight trading days.

US equities went up last Friday, with investors anticipating the employment report and the release of the minutes from the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week.

Locally, net value turnover remained thin at P3.73 billion.

Counters were dominated by those in the red, with holding firms posting the biggest loss at 0.50 percent.

The services index, meanwhile, recorded the largest gain at 1.52 percent, followed by financials which climbed by 0.91 percent.

Advancers edged out decliners, 112 to 103, while 52 issues were unchanged.

ICTSI was yesterday’s top traded company, rising by 2.8 percent to P410.60 per share, followed by BDO which jumped by two percent to P147.90.