The CEO of the Philippine Stock Exchange [PSE 174.80 ?5.9%; 68% avgVol], Ramon Monzon [link], said that our country’s only stock exchange is “always optimistic and hopeful”, and is “[looking] forward to a more robust trading year and better capital-raising performance.” Mr. Monzon said that the PSE will “continue to work towards ticking off more items in our three-year strategic plan” which is intended to “help us catch up with our peers in the region.” The PSE expects to raise ?120 billion through six IPOs in FY25.
MB BOTTOM-LINE: As investors, we know that you can’t eat hopes and dreams. We’ve heard all of these statements (or their relatives) before, and we’ve learned to largely tune these out. The big takeaway here is that 2025 will be a year of uncertainty. Where 2024 was all about finishing the fight against inflation, with a limited array of metrics that we could all track and follow to evaluate and predict how that fight was going (CPI, jobless claims, commodity prices, exchange rates), 2025 is something of a wildcard. How will the administration change in the US affect the balance of some of the simmering geopolitical tensions? Will China be emboldened by Trump’s isolationist rhetoric, or pulled into line by the looming threat of a trade war? Will Russia be able to scrabble together enough resources to finish the quick trip to Kyiv that it tried to take in 2022? How will any of this impact the peso, and how will that influence business activity in the Philippines? There are a lot of moving pieces in times of uncertainty, and this time is no exception.
Merkado Barkada is a free daily newsletter on the PSE, investing and business in the Philippines. You can subscribe to the newsletter or follow on Twitter to receive the full daily updates.
Be the first to comment