Philippines stocks rose on Friday, led by strong gains in dominant phone firm PLDT after it reported record profits in 2003 and saw further growth in 2004 on the back of its strong mobile phone firms.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) rose 3.21 percent or 30 pesos to 965 pesos. It accounted for 32 percent of total trade.
"It has impressive margins and innovative service. The future is bright for PLDT," said AB Capital economic analyst Jose Vistan.
The main index ended 1.01 percent or 14.88 points at 1,488.02 points.
The market is up 3.16 percent so far this year. Value turnover rose to 1.715 billion pesos ($30.46 million) from Thursday's 1.13 billion pesos.
In the broader market, gainers narrowly beat losers 26 to 24 and there were 39 stocks unchanged.
Analysts said political concerns that helped drive the peso to a new record low against the dollar tempered market gains.
The peso on Friday touched 56.35 per dollar, its lowest ever, slipping swiftly from the previous day's close at 56.20.
As of noon-break, the peso was quoted at 56.305/32 per dollar.
Traders said the fall was caused by a sudden bout of dollar demand from companies and mounting political uncertainty ahead of the May 10 national election.
The Supreme Court began hearing arguments on Thursday about petitions seeking Poe's disqualification on the grounds that he is not a natural-born Filipino.
It could take days or weeks for the court to reach a decision.
Analysts have said there were concerns a verdict preventing the popular actor from running for president could spark a violent backlash from his supporters.
"Players are wary of political developments but they're not selling down the market. Investors are still waiting for the earnings report of some blue chips like Meralco to be released in the coming weeks," Vistan said.
Manila Electric Company (Meralco), the country's largest power distributor, is expected to return to profit in the fourth quarter of 2003 after racking up lossed the previous year.
Its B shares which are open to foreigners rose 4.84 percent or 1.50 pesos to 32.50 pesos, while its A shares restricted to Filipinos were unchanged at 19.25 pesos.
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