Share prices are expected to continue to move sideways this shortened trading week as investors continue to digest the recession signals in the US economy.
Papa Securities trader Gabriel Jose Perez said investors would look for guidance overseas on lack of clear and major catalysts locally after the end of the earnings season.
“Initial support for the meantime would be around the area of its previous intraday lows around 7,620, and the major one would be at May’s low of 7,475,” Perez said.
Aside from the fears of a recession in the US, tensions stemming from the escalation in the trade war between the US and China is also dampening investor sentiment.
BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the market would consolidate within the 7,700/8,000-point levels in the near-term.
“However, downside risk remains towards the 7,500 levels. If said levels are broken, could see a retest of the 7,000/7,300 levels,” Ravelas said.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index last week dropped 0.7 percent to close at 7,795.98, while the broader All Shares Inc. declined 0.9 percent to 4,74,14.
Only the holding firms and industrial among the sectoral indices rose, with gains of 1.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.
The financials dropped 3.9 percent, while the property, services and mining and oil sectors dropped 1.5 percent, 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
Foreign investors were net sellers for the week by P4.5 billion, while the average daily value traded stood at P8.9 billion from the previous week’s average of P7 billion.
Weekly top price gainers were Jollibee Foods Corp., which rose 5.3 percent to P237; SM Investments Corp., which advanced 4.1 percent to P1,027; and San Miguel Corp., which climbed 3.7 percent to P183.70.
Weekly top price losers were Andrew Tan-led stocks Alliance Global Group Inc., which declined 8.1 percent to P13.02; and Megaworld Corp., which dropped 7.1 percent to P5.29.
Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., a unit of Alliance Global, said last week its board approved the delisting of the company’s shares with the PSE.
Global stock markets, meanwhile, rose on Friday as investors put economic growth fears and trade jitters to one side, deciding that they had had enough drama and losses for one week.
“We’re ending a turbulent week on a more positive note as exhausted traders the world over head into the weekend in a more buoyant mood,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at the Oanda trading group.
Equities have had a volatile five days, during which US-China trade talk hopes came and went and economic data and bond yields pointed to a possible worldwide downturn.
On Wall Street, the Dow on Wednesday suffered its worst day of the year, before recovering slightly on Thursday, and bouncing back strongly on Friday.
The index gained 1.2 percent, as investors found relief in hope for progress in the US-China trade war, and housing data offered enough good news not to ruin the party, despite a disappointing report on consumer sentiment, but was still down for the week. With AFP
