Stocks are expected to move sideways with a downward bias toward the 7,300-point level in the coming weeks, as the market continues to be influenced by developments here and abroad.
BPI Asset Management said the index could still hit a low of 7,300 points, after falling 1.2 percent last week.
“For next week, we expect the Philippine stock market to continue being swayed by sentiment-driven flows. We expect the index to find floor at 7,300,” BPI Asset Management said.
Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director Luis Limlingan, however, said the market’s sideways movement could have a slight bias on the upside as the index formed a strong base at 7,550 level over the past few weeks.
“However this does not mean that the index is on it way to establishing an uptrend as it is currently trading in a high volatility environment,” Limlingan said.
He said to handle the market’s current volatility, investors should adopt a quick trade strategy particularly for stocks that have a defined swing patterns.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index ended 1.2 percent lower to 7,629.73 on Sept. 30, while the broader all-share index declined 1.2 percent to 4,533.24.
Except for the property index which inched up by 0.5 percent, all other subindices ended in the red, led by services (-3.4 percent), holding firms (-1.5 percent), financials (-1.2 percent), industrial (-1.1 percent) and mining and oil (-0.7 percent).
After several weeks of net foreign selling, overseas investors posted P3.6 billion in net foreign buying this week. Total foreign buying reached P24.7 billion, while foreign selling amounted to P21.09 billion.
Net foreign inflows amounted to P35.1 billion since the start of the year. Despite the market’s recent decline, the PSEi was still up 9.8 percent since the start of the year.
Top gainers last week were Leisure & Resorts World Corp. which jumped 25.2 percent to P5.51, Megawide Construction Corp. which advanced 6 percent to P15.88 and Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. which went up by 4.2 percent to P5.39.
Heavy losers were Bloomberry Resorts Corp. which declined 21.4 percent to P4.56, and LT Group Inc. which dropped 6.5 percent to P15.30.