INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

The dollar bond market saw much activity last week with prices appreciating by 0.125% to 0.25% on average taking the cue from the strong gains of Emerging Market stocks. The MSCI Asia Pac ex Japan Index gained 3.53% week on week (WOW) to 294.16. The HSBC Liquid Bond Index was also slightly up WOW rising by 0.19% to 277.40. The gains however of the local composite index were not as significant managing to post a gain of 0.85% WOW. We also saw the Bureau of Customs exceeding its revenue collection goals for February amounting to P13.11 Billion with the Bureau of Internal Revenue only slightly short of its collection goal of P48.25 Billion collecting P47.21 Billion.

Local stocks resumed its accent from last week along with Asian stocks. This time it was not telco giant PLDT that drove the market but Meralco and Ayala Corp on account of market positive news of the former embarking on building their own power generation plants and the latter’s favorable 2009 performance results. The PSEi closed at 3,094.98, up by 0.83% from last week’s close. Turnover was at P2.78 Billion.