Stocks jumped Thursday for the second straight day, as Joe Biden inched towards becoming the next US president, with investors now hoping lawmakers will soon pass a much-needed new stimulus package.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index surged 180.72 points, or 2.8 percent, to 6,644.77 on a value turnover of P10.2 billion. Gainers beat losers, 128 to 73, with 53 issues unchanged.
GT Capital Holdings Inc. of the Ty Group climbed 7.8 percent to P485, while Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest fast-food chain, advanced 5 percent to P194.20.
JG Summit Holdings Inc of the Gokongwei Group rose 5.9 percent to P69.55, while Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, rallied 4.5 percent to P3.25.
The rest Asian markets also rallied Thursday. Traders brushed off Donald Trump’s claims of fraud and calls to stop vote-counting by calling in lawyers, instead taking heart from the failure of a Democratic sweep of Congress, which would have likely led to tax hikes and regulation.
While crucial battleground states remain close, the former vice president said he was confident that “when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
All three main indexes on Wall Street surged, with the Nasdaq soaring almost four percent as tech titans including Apple and Facebook breathed a sigh of relief.
“For financial markets, though, the result is a boon,” said Jeffrey Halley at OANDA.
“Gone will be a multi-trillion-dollar fiscal stimulus, in will come more monetary policy stimulus as the Federal Reserve takes the burden on its shoulders,” he added.
“Even if President Trump were to make a miraculous comeback, that status quo would be unchanged. It is, therefore, little surprise that US equity markets powered higher and the US Dollar quickly unwound all of its gains yesterday.”
However, Trump earlier claimed victory unilaterally and made clear he would not accept the reported results, issuing unprecedented complaints—unsupported by any evidence—of fraud.
“The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself,” he tweeted, alleging without proof or explanation that “secretly dumped ballots” had been added in Michigan.
Still, analysts said that while Trump’s court bids could cause some uncertainty, many investors were confident the uncertainty would not likely drag on.
Hong Kong and Jakarta all rose nearly three percent, while Singapore and Seoul were also up more than two percent.
Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok and Mumbai rallied more than one percent and there were also gains in Wellington and Taipei.
Hopes for a new economic rescue package out of Washington were providing support to equities, even though any spending bill will not be as big as previously thought under a Democrat-run Congress.
With politicians going back to work on Monday, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell lifted hopes for a quick resolution, saying: “We need another rescue package.
“Hopefully the partisan passions that prevented us from doing another rescue package will subside with the election. And I think we need to do it and I think we need to do it before the end of the year.” With AFP