The Philippine Stock Exchange saw its brightest moments during the Aquino administration with the main index surging to its highest levels while companies raised record amounts of capital from the public through the bourse.

On July 1, 2010, the first trading day since Former President Benigno S. Aquino inauguration as the 15th President of the Republic, the Philippine Stock Exchange index or PSEi closed at 3,315.26.

Barely three months into the Aquino administration, the PSEi broke past the 4,000 level. The main index tested the said psychological level and reached an intraday high of 4,011.27 on September 14 and two days later closed at 4,005.46.

In the next few years, the 5,000 to 8,000 levels were also pierced. The PSEi closed above these levels for the first time on March 2, 2012 at 5,016.30; January 7, 2013 at 6,044.91; April 22, 2013 at 7,120.48 and April 6, 2015 at 8,053.74.

Under President Aquino’s term, the PSEi rose to all-time intraday highs 131 times and climbed to all-time high at the close 119 times, with a maximum of seven consecutive days of breaching all-time-high. 

“I fondly recall the time when I used to personally send stock market updates to President Aquino each time the market breached new milestones. We have to give credit to PNoy and his good governance drive which promoted political stability and transparency that translated well in market’s strong performance,” said PSE Chairman Jose T. Pardo.

Aside from the index level, the stock market’s performance also charted records under Aquino’s watch.

The PSE started documenting foreign investor transactions in 1998. Since then, the highest net foreign buying recorded for the year was in 2012 at P109.98 billion.

Meantime, the highest total value turnover and average daily value turnover posted since 1998, when the Exchange started to have electronic records of this data, was logged in 2013 at P2.55 trillion and P10.52 billion, respectively.

The highest capital raising in PSE’s record happened in 2012. Capital raised from initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, stock rights offerings, and private placements, excluding the sale of secondary shares, amounted to P219.07 billion.

“All these stock market records during President Aquino’s time served as a strong testament to the level of investor confidence in his governance. The strong macroeconomic fundamentals served as the ideal backdrop for foreign and domestic investors to raise capital and invest in the Philippine stock market,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon explained.

On June 30, 2016, President Aquino’s last day in office, the PSEi closed at 7,796.25. During his six-year term, the PSEi soared 135.2 percent.