THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has denied social media claims that it has lost as much as P5 trillion in market capitalization (MCAP) since December 2024.
In a statement on Sunday, the PSE said a social media post on Oct. 10 “advanced the preposterous claim that the PSE has lost up to P5 trillion in market capitalization since December 2024.” The post was “reposted the following day in an online tabloid,” it added.
“The Phisix market cap actually dropped by P5 trillion from Dec. 2024 to Oct. and by P3.6 trillion from Feb. to Oct. These numbers are in fact much larger than what was formerly cited. Although, if one looks at the index performance in the last 3 weeks the P1.7-trillion loss may not be that farfetched,” the social media post said.
The PSE said that it tracks two types of MCAP — domestic and total. Domestic MCAP covers Philippine companies whose primary listing is on the PSE, while total MCAP includes both domestic MCAP and the market value of foreign companies dually listed in the Philippines and abroad, such as Manulife Financial Corp. (MFC), Sun Life Financial, Inc. (SLF), and Del Monte Pacific Ltd. (DELM).
“Since only less than 1% of the outstanding shares of MFC and SLF and less than 5% of DELM are lodged for trading in PSE, PSE uses domestic MCAP data as the MCAP reference number since it more accurately captures the performance of the Philippine stock market,” the Exchange said.
PSE data showed that domestic MCAP stood at P14.29 trillion as of Oct. 10, down by P273.26 billion or 1.88% from P14.57 trillion as of Dec. 27, 2024. Total MCAP, which includes the foreign listings, fell by P886.84 billion or 4.43% during the same period.
“Deliberately comparing apples to oranges by comparing domestic MCAP to total MCAP is dishonest, if not malicious, and is clearly meant to provoke investors to lose confidence in the Philippine capital market and destabilize the economy,” the PSE said.
“We trust that the data provided in this statement will put an end to fake news about trillions lost in PSE’s MCAP this year,” it added. — Alexandria Grace C. Magno