Share prices are expected to move sideways with a positive bias as corporate earnings could boost market morale.
Online brokerage firm P2P Trade Online trader Gabriel Jose Perez said the strong foreign buying in the last trading day last week and the positive momentum would hopefully spill over this week.
After 44 consecutive days of net foreign selling, foreign funds were net buyers Wednesday, with net purchases reaching P228.7 million.
Investors will also be monitoring third-quarter financial results of listed companies as well as several economic releases, including October’s inflation trade on Tuesday, the trade data on Wednesday, and the third-quarter economic performance report this month.
“The coming weeks present a good trading window, having seen a lot of fundamentally strong stocks beaten by the selling stigma,” online brokerage firm 2TradeAsia.com said.
Meanwhile, companies that are scheduled to release their financial reports this week are Ayala Land Inc., Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Globe Telecom Inc., Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., SM Investments Corp. and Aboitiz Equities Ventures Inc.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index last week gained 1.1 percent to close at 7,140.29 points, while the broader All Shares Index rose 0.9 percent to 4,370.46.
All major sub-indices ended in the green, led by financial (+2.8 percent), mining and oil (+1.7 percent), industrial (+1.2 percent), holding firms (+0.7 percent), services (+0.1 percent) and property (0.03 percent).
The stock market is down 16.7 percent year-to-date.
Foreign investors were net sellers last week by P1.1 billion, pushing the year-to-date foreign selling to P93.37 billion.
Weekly top price gainers were DMCI Holdings Inc., which rose 7.2 percent to P12.84; BDO Unibank Inc., which advanced 5.5 percent to P122.40; and San Miguel Corp., which increased 3.9 percent to P171.
Weekly top price losers were Cebu Air Inc., which dropped 3.6 percent to P64; Puregold Price Club Inc., which lost 3.4 precent to P40.55; and GT Capital Holdings Inc., which fell 3.2 percent to P760.
Meanwhile, hopes for a speedy resolution to the US-China trade impasse lifted Asian stocks early Friday but gave way to doubts later in the global trading day that pushed Wall Street lower.
Trading in Asia started with a bang after US President Donald Trump hailed positive talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, which was a rare sign of hope in the stand-off between the world’s top two economies.
A report by Bloomberg News later said Trump had asked officials to draw up a draft bill as he eyes a potential trade deal between the two.
Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo all rose more than 2.5 percent, while the positive commentary also boosted European shares.
US stocks too got off to a winning start but the momentum quickly vanished on doubts about the likelihood of an imminent agreement.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow poured cold water on expectations for a breakthrough, telling CNBC “there’s no massive movement to deal with trade,” in an interview that helped push stocks lower. With AFP