Monthly Archives: June 2013
PH stocks rebound sharply
MANILA, Philippines — Local stocks rebounded sharply on Wednesday, chalking up the single-biggest daily gain in six years, as bargain-hunters picked up oversold stocks as soon as the market dipped into “bear territory.”
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index regained 329.88 points or 5.7 percent to close at 6,118.94. The PSE said this marked the local stock barometer’s biggest one-day point increase on record since August 2007, supported by positive news on the US economy and the encouraging income performance of listed companies in the first quarter.
This ended a five-day slump, likewise tracking a sharp recovery across regional markets. This was after China vowed to stabilize its money markets after a recent credit crunch raised concerns about a potential crisis similar to that which hit Wall Street in 2008.
“Yesterday’s decline was overdone. If at 7,400 (the peak of the last bull run) there was irrational exuberance, yesterday was just plain irrational,” said Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc.
Roxas said a lot of the stocks have become attractive to bargain-hunters as the five-session selldown had left out there a lot of oversold stocks.
On Tuesday, the local stock market technically entered “bear” territory after falling by over 20 percent from the recent peak of 7,400.
All counters rebounded but the sharpest rebounders were the industrial, holding firm and property counters which all rose by over 6 percent.
Value turnover amounted to P9.63 billion. There were 146 advancers that overwhelmed 34 decliners while 30 stocks were unchanged.
The day’s biggest index outperformers were AEV (+14.88 percent), MWC (+12.27 percent) and Jollibee (+9.86 percent). DMCI, MPI, EDC and URC also surged by over 8 percent. Other big index gainers were ALI (+7.41 percent), SM Prime (+6.76 percent) and AP (+6.61 percent).
PLDT remained as the country’s most valuable company in terms of market capitalization at P585 billion (+3.32 percent). Runner-up SM Investments (+6.37 percent) ended with P573.76 billion.
source: http://business.inquirer.net/129137/ph-stocks-rebound-sharply
Labor officer in Riyadh ready to face sex charges
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – For the very first time, an official of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) accused of molesting and sexually harassing three overseas Filipino workers has spoken up.
POLO Assistant Labor Secretary Antonio Villafuerte vowed to answer all allegations hurled against him after he returns to the Philippines.
“Sa mga alegasyon at akusasyon sa akin sasagutin ko po lahat yan sa tamang oras, tamang lugar at pagkakataon,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte was order to return home after he was named by OFWs “Michelle”, “Analisa”, and “Angel” as a labor official who exploits distressed OFWs in Riyadh.
The OFWs’ revelations came in the heels of the alleged scandal revealed by Rep. Walden Bello wherein he named three embassy and labor officials in Syria, Jordan and Kuwait, who reportedly engaged in the “sex-for-flight” scheme and ran alleged sex ring in the Middle East.
The controversial issues prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment to create an investigating team to probe the allegations.
“Naniniwala po ako sa maikling panahon ng aking serbisyo dito sa Riyadh, ay aking nagampanan nang maayos ang aking tungkulin,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte has been assistant labor attache for 9 months.
He said this is the first time in his 28 years of government service that his name was linked to a controversy.
“Naniniwala rin po ako na may mga taong handang magpahayag para lumabas ang buong katotohanan,” he said.
Meanwhile, a male undocumented worker voluntarily gave his statement to ABS-CBN Middle East to say that Villafuerte was the only government official who was able to help him in his case.
James Limbaro said he was there when a foreigner asked Villafuerte for help in finding workers when one of the three alleged victims came forward.
“Nagmamakaawa sya sa Masri na yun, Egyptian, nanghingi siya ng tiket, kapalit ng bibigyan siya ng aplikante. Kalokohan ‘yong pambubugaw,” Limbaro said.
Villafuerte appealed to his family, friends and supporters not to worry as he remains confident that he didn’t do anything wrong or violate his responsibility while performing his duties.
“Sa aking pamilya, mga kamag-anak, kaibigan at mga ka-opisina, maraming salamat po sa inyong suporta. Huwag po kayong mag-alala,” he said. – Reports from Roland Blanco, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau
source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/06/25/13/labor-officer-riyadh-ready-face-sex-charges
Fake Recruiter Targets OFWs in HK, Offer Jobs in Canada
Filipinos working in Hong Kong especially the household service workers (HSWs) are warned against an illegal recruiter that targets to victimize them. According to an advisory posted by POEA in their official website, a recruitment agency, Yamsuan and Associates Overseas Employment Services Ltd./Pacific Management Services Ltd. lure possible victims by offering non-existent jobs in the North American country.
The POEA chief, Hans Cacdac citing a report from the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMWA) said that Yamsuan and Associates advertise their fake jobs to Canada in English newspapers in Hong Kong.
The DFA report said, “The advertisement says the agency can help them find work in Canada and invites them to an orientation in its office.”
The Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong reported that the owner of Yamsuan and Associates known only as Mr. Yasmuan is a Filipino and his employees are also Filipinos. Its registered address in Hong Kong is at the 9th Floor, 4-6 Morrison Hill Road, Wanchai.
There are already 44 alleged victims of Yamsuan and Associates who have filed complaints at the Philippine Embassy in Hong Kong. The complainants reported that the illegal agency asked them to pay USD100 to USD300 as placement fee to get a job in Canada.
The poor victims complied with the required fees but the job they expected never came. When they went back to the office of Yamsuan, they find it empty and non-operational.
The Embassy of the Philippines in Hong Kong is calling other victims of the said agency tofile their complaints and give their statements too.
The POEA chief on the other hand reminded applicants to be meticulous and wise when dealing with agencies offering overseas jobs.
Cacdac said, “Scammers with tempting job offers are out there, waiting to pound on unsuspecting applicants who are willing to part with their hard-earned money for a chance to work overseas.”
Phl in good position to weather volatility – credit watchers
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ strong fundamentals will not only keep the economy afloat, but will also ensure that the recent financial market turbulence will not have any effect on the country’s credit rating, debt watchers said.
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings, which granted the country investment-grade status earlier this year, said the Philippines is in a good position to weather the sentiment-led volatility.
“It will not have any impact on the Philippines’ credit rating. Our outlook for the Philippines is stable,” S&P credit analyst Agost Benard said in a phone interview yesterday. He declined to elaborate.
For his part, Andrew Colquhoun, Fitch’s head of Asia-Pacific Sovereigns, said the country is “well-placed” to absorb the recent sell-off driven mainly by concerns the US would reduce and eventually pullout its stimulus measures.
In effect, cheap money that has been utilized to boost growth in Asia found their way back to the US on optimism interest rates would increase there. Proof of this was the plunge of the local index to its lowest level since January yesterday, to close at 5,971.05, down 3.41 percent.
Colquhoun cited the large current account surplus posted by the country since 2003, allowing it to generate dollars more than enough to meet its external obligations. As of March, the current account surplus stood at $3.4 billion.
The current account – which include earnings from exports, remittances and business process outsourcing – has contributed to the country’s over-all balance of payments (BOP), which recorded a surplus of $1.884 billion as of May.
For the whole year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects an excess of $4.4 billion in the BOP, although this amount is still down from last year’s $9.236 billion.
“This was one of the factors driving Philippines’ upgrade to investment grade in March this year,” Colquhoun pointed out.
Last March, Fitch became the first credit rater to upgrade the Philippines’ credit worthiness to investment grade, at BBB-, with a stable outlook. The move was followed by a similar action from S&P last May.
The Aquino administration aimed at reaching investment-grade status this year, as it looked at expanding credit avenues, lowering debt interest payments and attracting more foreign investments to boost growth.
So far though, Moody’s Investors Service – another major credit rater – has kept the Philippines at its highest junk rating, Ba1, with a stable outlook, although recent comments have suggested it could grant an upgrade soon. Moody’s could not be reached for comment.
Despite the absence of Moody’s upgrade and the selloff though, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said the country would have no problem raising funds from the capital markets as bulk of its funding needs were already fulfilled.
The Philippines, according to the bank, has already covered 69 percent of its total financing needs for the year and investors would allow it to raise the remaining amount going forward.
“As demand weakens, we think the market will increasingly focus on the issuance needs of countries relative to their gross issuance targets,” the investment bank said in a report.
Phl, Australia firms team up to develop Pinoy technoprenuers
MANILA, Philippines — Incubator-accelerator firms from the Philippines and Australia have entered into a partnership to fund and mentor Filipino technopreneurs.
Local incubator Kickstart Ventures Inc., a wholly-owned company by Globe Telecom, teamed up with Australian counterpart Pollenizer to bring the latter’s distinctive approach to company formation into the Philippines market.
The partnership dubbed Pollenizer@Kickstart hopes to increase the chances of success of local technopreneurs by combining top talent, great ideas, and startup best practices.
The concept is to provide highly-skilled engineers, business people, and product managers with a unique environment for entrepreneurial experimentation.
Pollenizer@Kickstart encourages interested individuals to apply to join a team that Kickstart and Pollenizer are co-founding to address a well-researched problem, with the Pollenizer@Kickstart program providing a built-in funding runway, and a structured incubation process.
Minette Navarrete, President of Kickstart, said team members could be corporate employees looking for more autonomy and freedom to experiment, entrepreneurs looking to plug into a support system and pre-defined project, or people who have moved between both environments.
Each team member is considered a co-founder and receives an equity stake in the business that they form as well as a salary to meet month expenses.
Team members are expected to own the vision and execution for the business, with intense support, mentorship and guidance from Kickstart and Pollenizer. One of them will also be chosen as the Chief Executive Officer of the new business.
The businesses will be given funding to sustain operations for at least one year.
Subsequent funding rounds, however, will be driven by the team, with ample support from Kicsktart and Pollenizer including access to the two companies’ investor networks.
Companies to be built by Pollenizer@Kickstart teams will target the Philippines as a launch market while maintaining a global outlook.
At present, Pollenizer@Kickstart is seeking team members with three main profiles, such as Engineers who are knowledgeable on Ruby/Rails, PHP/Cake or other languages and platforms; Product managers who have clear understanding of the customers and can do wireframes, pitching, and prototyping; and Commercial and business development managers who are experienced in product pricing, sales and distribution, channel and account management, and pitching proposals.
Navarette said all team members are required to be gutsy entrepreneurs to pursue their global business dreams with available resources.
“We have assessed the needs of the Philippine market and we are looking for ideas that would address the gaps and exploit the opportunities in the problem spaces such as real estate listings, e-commerce, remittance, labor cost arbitrage, OFW placement, education, and healthcare,” Navarrete said.
Interested parties are encouraged to submit their applications on or before June 30, 2013.
pinoyinvestors 