Investors 'cautious' in trading PLDT stocks; seek more details on 'overrun' issue

MANILA - Investors are seen to be cautious in trading stocks of PLDT Inc after it reported a P48 billion "budget overrun" from 2019 to 2022, AAA Equities President Matthew Cabangon said on Tuesday.

PLDT shares dropped by nearly 20 percent on Monday, the steepest since September 1998. 

"Investors still have a lot of questions on what exactly that [overrun] means. Does that mean they overbuild last year? Or could this have been a P48 billion honest mistake? I don’t know. We don’t know a lot of details yet," Cabangon said.

"I think investors, in trading this stock, would be very cautious. I don’t see it stabilizing until we see a definitive resolution to this issue," he added.

The Securities and Exchange Commission earlier said it is closely monitoring the issue and that it had launched an independent inquiry in relation to the trading of PLDT shares. 

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