The Philippine Stock Exchange Composite Index rose 0.46 percent, or 27.3 points, to close at 5,920.70 on Thursday, ending a four-day losing streak as Filipino traders took their cue from a Wall Street rally fuelled by what investors read as a dovish signal from US President Donald Trump on Iran. The broader all-shares index slipped 0.12 percent, or 4.03 points, to 3,335.85, but turnover and bargain-hunting both picked up.
Bank of the Philippine Islands led the benchmark, climbing 2.76 percent to ₱89.50, while Monde Nissin Corp. was the day’s biggest drag, falling 3.66 percent to ₱6.84. Value turnover rose to ₱6.58 billion across 1.03 billion shares. Net foreign selling, however, ticked up to ₱190.76 million, indicating local investors did the buying while foreign desks continued trimming exposure.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump had told reporters in Washington that “we’re in the final stages of Iran” — adding “we’ll see what happens. Either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen.” Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Thursday that Tehran was “reviewing” the latest US proposal, as talks continued under a fragile ceasefire that has held since early April, with Trump saying he was prepared to wait a few days for Tehran’s response. Axios reported separately that mediators were drafting a letter of intent which, if signed, would formally end the war and launch a 30-day negotiation window. The reversal came less than 48 hours after US Vice President JD Vance warned that the United States was “locked and loaded” to restart military operations.
“The local market ended higher after four straight days of decline as selective bargain hunting emerged among investors,” said Luis A. Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp. Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco, research manager at Philstocks Financial, said “the local market rose taking cues from Wall Street’s rally overnight.”
The PSEi remains below the psychologically important 6,000 mark and is still down for the week. Direction next session will hinge on whether Iran formally responds to the US proposal — and whether the Trump administration’s tone holds the dovish turn or swings back to the Vance line.
