Cooling inflation lifts share prices

March 6, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines —   Share prices sustained its upward trajectory, rising for the third straight session after the country’s inflation eased sharply in February.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) increased by 0.95 percent or 57.66 points to close yesterday’s session at 6,121.77.

The broader All Shares index also finished strong, rising by 0.98 percent or 35.58 points to 3,664.54.

“Philippine shares were bought to above 6,100 mark following better-than-expected February inflation print,” Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said.

Abroad, Limlingan said that Wall Street continued to struggle as President Donald Trump’s tariffs raised investor concerns about potential economic disruptions.

Inflation eased to 2.1 percent in February, its lowest level in five months or since the 1.9 percent recorded in September last year, from 2.9 percent in January.

“Local market gains recently were driven by expectations of easing local inflation to around 2.5 percent to 2.6 percent from 2.9 percent in January 2025, so it turned out more benign at 2.1 percent in February 2025,” RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said.

“So the pleasant surprise on the more benign local inflation data lately further improved market sentiment: three straight days of gains for the PSEi, ignoring all the external noises or risk factors, especially those related to Trump’s tariff threats,” Ricafort said.

Trading was strong, with net value turnover rising to P7.23 billion from the previous day’s P6.56 billion.

All sectors were in the positive territory, except for services, which dipped by 0.009 percent.

The property index recorded the highest jump, soaring by 2.99 percent.

Market breadth remained positive advancers squashed decliners, 114 to 77, while 55 shares were unchanged.

ICSTI was the session’s top traded company, declining by 0.88 percent to P337 per share, followed by BDO Unibank with a1.26-percent increase to P152.90.