MANILA - The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday lauded the plans of President Rodrigo Duterte to maintain current macroeconomic policies and pursue reforms to ensure competitiveness.

Hans Sicat, PSE president, said Duterte's statements on his economic plans in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) "should be good for the capital markets as investors are always looking for stability in policies."

"The commitment of the government to increase infrastructure spending should only be additive to the current high growth that we have been experiencing," Sicat said in a statement.

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Sicat welcomed the President's plans in pursuing reforms to improve ease of doing business, saying "the standards for measuring the competitiveness of our industries must be viewed beyond the country's economic territory."

He added that the PSE is also looking forward to the results of the review of the implementing guidelines of the Real Estate Investment Trust as well as the launch of the first Personal Equity and Retirement Account.