‘Volatility to persist despite US-Iran ceasefire’

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April 9, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines —  The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) is not raising its hopes of a market recovery yet despite the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran, a move welcomed warmly by investors in the local stock market yesterday.

“We have a long way to go. For the meantime, we expect trading to stay sideways,” PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon told The STAR.

“What’s good is that the volumes are holding,” he said.

For Monzon, what is important at present is to stop the significant foreign selling in the local market.

“The (selling) pressure is big. We were net foreign buying of about P26 billion, but since March 2 up to now, our net foreign buying is just P10 billion, so we had a P15-billion net selling in the last month. We have to get that back,” he said.

The local stock market posted significant gains yesterday, returning to the 6,000 level as investors cheered US President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend for two weeks the bombing and attack on Iran.

Monzon said he is hoping the market would sustain its upward momentum moving forward.

The PSE chief earlier said the Iran war has emerged as the new headwind after the corruption scandal in the country weighed down the stock market last year.

For his part, BDO Capital & Investment Corp. president Eduardo Francisco said he expects market volatility to remain unless a permanent ceasefire takes place.

“Let us not be too optimistic. For us, we should be prepared all the time. Let’s be prepared that there will be continuous volatility,” Francisco told The STAR.

“I think it’s still premature. You just take the short term gain, but I don’t think it’s sustainable unless there’s a definite ceasefire,” Francisco said.