Trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange this week is expected to remain weak as investors continue to take profits for the year.
Analysts said investors were losing confidence after the market breached the 8,200-point support level last week. The drop could encourage investors to continue with the sell-off.
BDO Unibank chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the break below the 8,150 support level put the 8,000-point mark at risk. Analysts put the immediate support and resistance at 8,000 and 8,300 points, respectively.
Analysts are looking at the passage of the government’s comprehensive tax reform program, which is being discussed by members of the Senate and House of Representatives through the bicameral conference committee.
The government wants to implement the comprehensive tax reform program next year, to enable it to raise funds to fund an aggressive infrastructure program.
The bellwether PSE Index last week lost 2.64 percent to 8,144.02, while the broader All Shares Index dipped 2.11 percent to 4,785.86.
All major counters also closed on the negative, led by mining and oil which declined by 4.85 percent following anti-mining pronouncements made by the Duterte administration.
Industrials fell 2.97 percent, while the property, holding firms, services and finical dropped 2.81 percent, 2.54 percent, 2,01 percent and 1.48 percent, respectively.
Foreign investors, however, were net buyers by P946 million. The average weekly value traded jumped to P10.9 billion from the previous week’s average of P6.6 billion.
Weekly top price gainers were Petron Corp., which rose 4.8 percent to P9.60, D&L Industries Inc. which gained 4.3 percent to P11.14, and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which climbed 3.6 percent to P10.50.
The weekly top price losers were Philex Mining Corp., which slumped 15 percent to P5.85, PLDT Inc., which retreated 7.9 percent to P1,464, and Megaworld Corp., which shed 7.3 percent to P5.19.
Wall Street, meanwhile, finished last week on a tumultuous note Friday, with stocks tumbling after a former top aide to President Donald Trump pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and then bouncing back as a massive tax cut neared passage.
All three major indices declined, but ended well above session lows, boosted by statements by Senate Republican leaders that key tax-cut holdouts were falling into line following concessions. The dollar also briefly swooned but later recovered.
The rocky session in New York came as bourses in Paris and Frankfurt dropped on worries about a strengthening euro and as oil prices gained.
US stocks opened in negative territory after record finishes on Thursday, but the losses deepened on news that Trump campaign aide and former White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty in the probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Leading news commentators said the Flynn developments bring the probe closer to Trump and his family. With AFP