Duterte Outbursts Taking Toll as Philippine Stock Losses Mount
Comment of the Day

September 08 2016

Commentary by Eoin Treacy

Duterte Outbursts Taking Toll as Philippine Stock Losses Mount

This article by Ian C Sayson for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

“The latest incident raises concern that President Duterte’s unpredictable behavior in politics will be disruptive and could eventually spill into economics and business,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc., the Philippines’ biggest lender. It’s “further weakened a market that’s already been made vulnerable by uncertainty over U.S. interest rates, elevated valuations and overseas fund withdrawals,” he said.

The Philippine index is trading at 18.3 times 12-month estimated earnings. While that’s down from 19.6 in July, it’s still the highest in Asia and at a 32 percent premium to the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. The country’s economy expanded 7 percent last quarter from a year earlier, after 6.8 percent growth in the first three months of 2016.

Investors may be better off holding cash in the near term as the index could test its 7,500 support level, said BDO Unibank’s Ravelas. The gauge could fall as low as 7,330 in the next two months over concerns the budget deficit will rise when taxes are cut and spending raised, April Lee-Tan, head of research at COL Financial Group Inc. in Manila, said Monday.

“Smart investors should take advantage of the weakness and accumulate because this is all sentiment-driven," said Rizal’s Palma Gil. “Other than incendiary statements and killings related to the drug war, investors like Duterte’s economic and fiscal policies or at least what has been communicated so far,” he said, adding that he expected the index would go back up to 8,000.

Eoin Treacy's view

Duterte was elected on a law and order and anti-corruption ticket and admitted in his inaugural address that his methods were unorthodox and would not be approved of by many observers. Here is a link to a video of that address. 

The summary execution of 2400 drug dealers and suspected drug dealers has many observers worried about the toll this is taking on human rights. Duterte is understandably under pressure from Western allies as a result of these policies and it is unfortunate this particular outburst resulted in President Obama cancelling his visit which has weighed on sentiment towards the Philippines despite its outsized economic growth numbers. 

The Philippines Composite had paused in the region of the 2015 peak and has been consolidating its post-election surge for the last seven weeks. It bounced today from the region of the trend mean, near 7500, and a sustained move below that level would be required to question medium-term scope for additional upside. 

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