Interest Rates

RCBC recently posted the following announcement in its branches:

"Effective 24 January, new rates for the following services will be implemented:

Peso savings: O.75% p.a.
Dollar savings: 0.50% p.a.

From 1.5% per annum, the bank reduced the interest to below 1%, and this does not included taxes yet.

People, the handwriting on the wall is unmistakable: Do not park your money in banks. Invest it somewhere. Maintain just enough for liquidity.

90-day T-bills have been falling to 3-4%, bank lending rates range between 8-9%. In fact, it is the perfect time to borrow from banks (I expect housing and car loans to pick up significantly this year).

Consequently, listed property companies are again benefitting from all these. Araneta already sold out one of its residential towers adjacent to Gateway and construction hasn't even begun yet. FLI will list the additional shares tomorrow. Foreign buyers swamped the market and snapped FLI, I only got a few. I hope the market kicks the share price to high heavens! Sold my remaining PNOC shares at PhP5.30 (bought it at 3.20, I sold it initially at 5.00).

I have no idea yet on Holcim. Cement companies normally correlate positively with the property sector. There were a lot of cement companies before, but only a few listed ones remain active. Let me check.