Budget approval lifts stock markethome/Business/Top Business/Budget approval lifts stock marketApproval of the delayed 2019 national government budget lifted the stock market on Tuesday with investors anticipating a second-half economic uptick. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index finished at 7,826.46, up 0.49 percent or 38.48 points from the previous day. “[Investors took] the passing of the 2019 budget … as a positive sign that the economy might recover in the second half of 2019,” Philstocks Financial Inc. Research Associate Piper Chaucer Tan said. The budget impasse, along with an ongoing El Niño and a global economic slowdown, has prompted downward revisions to 2019 Philippine growth forecasts. In early trade London’s FTSE index rose 0.2 percent, Paris gained 0.3 percent and Frankfurt 0.5 percent.

Source: Manila Times April 16, 2019 16:30 UTC