Election Jitters Send Philippine Stock Investors to Sidelines
- Rodrigo Duterte maintains lead a week before presidential vote
- Frontrunner has given few details on likely economy policies
Traders talk in front of an electronic board displaying stock figures and currency exchange rates on the floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange in the Makati district of Manila, the Philippines, on Monday, May 18, 2015. The Philippines will start formally monitoring social networks as the nation's securities regulator cracks down on manipulation of a stock-market that has grown threefold to $278 billion in the past five years.
Photographer: Sanjit Das/BloombergPhilippine stocks fell the most since February after a poll showed tough-talking Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte maintaining a comfortable lead a week before the presidential election.
Duterte had 33 percent support in the Pulse Asia for ABS-CBN survey that was released after the markets closed on Friday, followed by Senator Grace Poe with 22 percent. While he’s promised a “bloody war” on criminals, Duterte hasn’t given out much information on his wider agenda and his lead has contributed to the peso weakening the most in Asia in the past month. He ranked third, behind Mar Roxas and Poe, in a Bloomberg survey last month that asked analysts who was the best candidate to run the economy.