MANILA, Philippines - The Makati Business Club (MBC) lauded the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the conduct of "successful" and "credible" elections that many investors hoped for.

"Despite the apparent lack of preparedness in case the automated system would fail on a large scale, the Comelec laid to rest many fears about automation," it said in a statement.

Earlier, the MBC, along with other business groups, led calls for a parallel manual count of votes after glitches marred the testing of automated poll machines days before the actual elections.

Businessmen had adopted a wait-and-see attitude, putting on hold investments in some industries like power, tourism and mining.

But as Monday's polls turned out to be broadly successful, instant relief came to the country's financial markets, with the Philippine Stock Exchange soaring 3.85%, its best percentage gain in more than 8 months.

The MBC said: "With the election season over, it is time to stop the acrimony. We call on all Filipinos to come together and support our new leaders."

In conclusion, the business group expressed gratitude to candidates who have accepted and welcomed the results of the polls.

"The early concessions of the losers to the apparent winners, even before the end of counting, is a refreshing change from the past when there were no losers but only candidates who were cheated."

As of 2:07 p.m., the Comelec's partial and official count showed Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino leading by a wide margin.

Aquino had 13.04 million votes, followed by former president Joseph Estrada with 8.34 million votes. Sen. Manuel "Manny" Villar, who was in neck-and-neck race with Aquino in poll surveys, came in third with 4.68 million votes.