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Friday, March 29, 2024

Stock market likely to sustain run

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Share prices are expected to sustain their upward momentum on expectations the local equities market could still do well amid cooling inflation and Wall Street’s volatility.

“Investors are buying blue chips that will benefit from a possible reversal of foreign inflows and positioning in stocks that will gain as inflation eases,” BDO Unibank chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said.

Ravelas said the market’s close at 8,047.12 signalled it still had the momentum to try the 8,150-point level over the near term period.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last week said inflation could hit at an average of 3.2 percent for the entire 2019 and 3 percent by 2020.

Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis Limlingan said Philippine shares might also benefit from easing trade tensions between the United States and China.

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The Philippine Stock Exchange Index last week registered its third consecutive week of gains, gaining 1.8 percent to 8.046.12.

All major counters ended in the green, led by financials (+2.44 percent), property (+1.86 percent), holding firms (+1.52 percent), industrial (+1.43 percent), services (+1.17 percent) and mining and oil (+0.91 percent).

Foreign investors were net buyers for the week by P5.2 billion, while the average daily value traded reached P11.2 billion from last week’s average of P8.6 billion.

Weekly top price gainers were Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc., which junmped 22.6 percent to P2.49; Lopez Holdings Inc., which advanced 22 percent to P5.69; and PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc., which climbed 18.9 percent to P6.67.

Weekly top price losers, meanwhile, were DMCI Holdings Inc., which declined 5.3 percent to P12.12; Puregold Price Club Inc., which fell 5.2 percent to P46; and Manila Electric Co., which dropped 4.6 percent to P369.20.

Stock markets across the globe, meanwhile, powered higher Friday, buoyed by hopes of a breakthrough in efforts to defuse a US-China trade war.

European and Asian indices bounced back strongly on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported Washington was considering lifting tariffs on China as officials look to hammer out a trade deal.

Wall Street joined the party later Friday, with major indices rising one percent or more to close out the fourth day in a row of gains. The Dow has risen more than 13 percent since December 24.

Bloomberg also reported Friday that Beijing had offered to eliminate its soaring trade surplus with the United States in five years.

“Global markets are enjoying an overwhelmingly bullish end to the week, with hopes of a potential breakthrough in US-China trade talks helping drive optimism,” said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at traders IG.

There’s “definitely rising optimism” of a trade deal, said LBBW’s Karl Haeling.

“There are kind of smoke signals and when there is smoke there is fire,” Haeling said. “It seems that Trump sees the weakening of the economy and the shutdown situation. He seems to be doing something to get a win here.” With AFP

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