Shares prices are expected to trade sideways this week with a downward bias on potential profit taking after four straight weeks of gains.
“The week’s close at 5,789.97 highlights profit-taking activities after it broke my 5,800 level target. It managed to register a top at 5,946.05. Expect some profit taking activities,” BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said.
“The next move should carry the index toward the retest of the 5,000/5-500 levels in the near-term. Immediate support and resistance is seen at 5,500 and 5,900 levels, respectively,” he added.
Justino Calaycay, research head from Philstocks Financial Inc., noted that the index last week made its first serious attempt to restore the 6,000-point mark, a level it last held in mid-March.
Calaycay said the market’s recent uptick had been supported by an increase in the average daily value flows despite the shortened trading hours.
“At the current pace of value flows, and assuming the full-trading hours, we would be hitting close to P7 billion per session. Further, from its lowest close at 4,623.42 last March 19 the benchmark has rebounded by no less than 25 percent,” Calaycay said.
The Philippine Stock Exchange last week advanced 5.1 percent to close at 5,789.97, while the broader All Shares Index rose 4.8 percent to 3,492.23.
Share prices climbed as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas unveiled more measures to support the economy and further eased the policy rates that remain supportive of the capital markets.
All major counters ended in the green, led by mining and oil which rose 8.5 percent, followed by industrial which climbed 7 percent and financials which advanced 6.8 percent.
The services index rallied 5.9 percent while the property and holding firms added 4.4 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Foreign investors were net sellers for the week by P6.19 billion, which the average daily value traded increased to P7.6 billion from the previous week’s average of P5.7 billion.
Weekly top price gainers include Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp., which jumped 46 percent to P8.72; Integrated Microelectronics Inc., which surged 45.7 percent to P5.60 ;and Jollibee Foods Corp., which climbed 20.8 percent to P145.
Weekly top price losers were Chemical Industries of the Philippine Inc., which declined 25.7 percent to P104; PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc., which decreased 17.3 percent to P3.30; and Golden Bria Holdings Inc. which fell 12.8 percent to P330.
Global stocks, meanwhile, finished a positive week on a strong note Friday, rallying as government officials moved ahead with plans to gradually reopen the economy.
Investors shrugged off atrocious economic data, with analysts pointing to a number of other positive catalysts, including a report indicating promising research on a Gilead Sciences drug to treat coronavirus and Boeing’s announcement that it will resume US commercial plane production.
In one of the first moves by a major US state, Texas Governor Greg Abbott approved retailers to employ a “to go” model that requires re-opened stores to deliver items to customers’ cars or homes. With AFP