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Friday, March 29, 2024

Market likely to trade sideways

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Share prices are expected to continue trading sideways with an upward momentum as investor sentiments will further improve toward the end of the year.

BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said while the market rose during the past trading weeks, there was still some steam left to move the index forward during the last trading trading days of the year.

“Market barometer PSEi rose 1.27 percent week-on-week for the fourth straight week to 7,461.06 as investor sentiment improved farther following a lower than expected November inflation rate,” Ravelas said.

“The market’s week’s close signals momentum is accelerating. The rally still has some steam to carry it towards the 7,800/8,000 levels in the near-term,” he added.

BPI Securities president and chief executive Hermenegildo Narvaez expects the index to close at 7,650 points at the end of 2018 and 8,300 in 2019.

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Narvaez said while rising inflation and interest rates were the major concerns among investors this year, these would not be a key factor next year amid declining world fuel prices and the government and the resolution of the country’s rice shortage.

Narvarez expects foreign funds to return to emerging markets like the Philippines with a firm US economy.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index last week rose 1.3 percent to 7,461.06, while the broader All Shares Index climbed 1.2 percent.

Except for the mining and oil index, which declined 0.9 percent, all other sub-indices ended in the green, led by financials (+2.17 percent), industrials (+1.75 percent), property (+1.25 percent) and holding firms (+0.81 percent).

Foreign investors were net buyers by P800.3 million, while the average daily value traded stood at P8.7 billion from last week’s average of P10.4 billion.

Weekly top price gainers were Asiabest Group International Inc., which rose 45 percent to P28.85; Philex Mining Corp., which advanced 10.1 percent to P2.82; and First Gen Corp., which rallied 9 percent to P19.32.

Weekly top price losers, meanwhile, were ISM Communications Corp., which declined 13.2 percent to P5.56; San Miguel Corp., which fell 7.2 percent to P162.20; and Semirara Mining and Power Corp., which lost 6.3 percent to P24.55.

Wall Street, meanwhile, closed out a bruising week on an ugly note on Friday as unease over the US-China trade war prompted another sell-off, while an Opec deal lifted oil prices.

Major US indices fell more than two percent to close the market’s worst week since March and one that left both the Dow and S&P 500 in negative territory for the year.

European and Asian markets were mixed, with London, Paris and Tokyo gaining and Hong Kong and Frankfurt falling modestly.

The Dow finished 2.2 percent lower at 24,388.95. The blue-chip index lost 4.5 percent for the week.

The declines on Wall Street followed a mixed US jobs report that had initially helped lift stocks early in the session, in part because it was seen as boosting the likelihood that the US Federal Reserve could soon pause interest rate hikes.

But the market quickly went negative, with the losses accelerating following hawkish comments from White House trade advisor Peter Navarro in a CNN interview that emphasized that the United States would raise tariffs on China if a deal is not reached. With AFP

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