Alerts

   Andy dela Cruz

The Department of Finance expects inflation to further ease in the coming months brought by lower crude oil prices in the international market. Also, as of June 6, Dubai crude futures dropped below US$60 and is now hovering over bear market territory.

   Andy dela Cruz

The Department of Tourism (DoT) reported that international tourist arrivals increased by 12.15% in April 2019 that records the Chinese market as the largest source (26.8% increase). Similarly, Korea also registered robust growth of 13.7%. The DoT expects the increase to continue as a result of more marketing initiatives with the private sector, improved connectivity from new flights, and more actively from new and upgraded airports.

   Andy dela Cruz

The country’s trade position for April has improved as imports declined while exports jumped. This results to a trade deficit of US$3.5billion during the month.

   Adrian Alexander Yu

TEL is optimistic that they will exceed their core income target for 2019 given the strong performance of its wireless business. Their mobile subscriber count has already jumped significantly during the 1st quarter along with consumer individual revenues. We are maintaining a BUY rating with an FV estimate of Php1,360/sh. Although potential capital appreciation is not substantial, we believe that their turnaround story is not yet fully priced in.

   Andy dela Cruz

For the 1st quarter of 2019, construction activity were mostly concentrated in CALABARZON, Central Visayas, Central Luzon, Davao and Ilocos Region. Construction activity increased by 10.4% from 36,002 to 39,7662 constructions. Around 69.2% of the total constructions were residential buildings while 16.2% were non-residential projects.

   Andy dela Cruz

As a part of BSP’s initiative to enhance the effectiveness of its monetary policy and to deepen domestic money market, they have imposed a uniform 4% reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for long-term negotiable certificates of time deposits (LTNCD), freeing up around Php6 Billion additional funds to the financial system.

   Andy dela Cruz

Marking its seventh straight month of increase, the country’s dollar reserves went up to US$85.02 Billion in May 2019 from US$83.96 Billion previous month. The increase was brought by the inflows arising from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits, the BSP’s forex operations and income from its investments abroad. The central bank said that this is a development that bodes well for the strength of the peso and industries that buy raw and intermediate materials from abroad.

   Andy dela Cruz

DICT targets to give the Mislatel consortium its frequencies and permit to operate by the end of the month. After the Mislatel Consortium secured the go signal from the SEC, only then can the DICT award the certificate of public convenience and necessity to the group. The Mislatel group is aiming to begin operations by 2020.

   George Ching

The Philippine Competition Commission is now currently evaluating the US$2.15- Bil acquisition of HLCM by SMC. PCC is now looking at the sufficiency of the parties’ submissions and once found sufficient, the phase 1 merger review of the transaction will proceed. SMC said that HLCM accounts for only a small percentage of the cement market in the Philippines at less than 20% and that SMC has no relevant presence in the cement industry.

   George Ching

MER is readying a 1,000 megawatt pipeline of renewable projects over the next five to seven years as it is committed to developing large-scale renewable energy projects that can deliver competitive electricity for the customers while keeping environmental sustainability as a top priority. In light of this, MER has established a new subsidiary MGEN Renewable Energy Inc. to serve as the platform to develop renewables. (source: Inquirer)