Stocks are expected to move sideways in the early part of trading this week, as investors look overseas for guidance and wait for the release of the gross domestic product data on Thursday.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said last week the economy likely grew 7 percent in the second quarter, faster than the 6.9-percent expansion in the first quarter, driven by infrastructure and election-related spending.
Pernia said he expected growth to be sustained in the second half.
Online brokerage firm 2TradeAsia.com said with the presidential election in May boosting spending, there was a good chance the second-quarter GDP number exceeded the consensus growth of 6.6-percent.
The brokerage firm said if growth hit over 6.6 percent, heavy accumulation of big capitalized stocks was expected.
Investors will also monitor the release of Japan’s GDP and the Federal Reserve meeting minutes this week.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company bellwether, dropped 0.2 percent over last week’s five-day market trading to close at 7,955.86 while the broader all-share index lost 0.4 percent to settle at 4,722.82.
Except for the industrial index, which went up 0.11 percent, all other indices ended in the red led by mining and oil which dropped 8.8 percent after the Environment Department threatened to shut down more mining companies for alleged environmental violations.
Top gainers last week were Megawide Construction Corp. which jumped 24.6 percent to P13.76, Bloomberry Resorts Corp. which climbed 5.1 percent to P6.19 and Cebu Air Inc. which rose 4.35 percent to P120.
Heavy losers were mostly mining firms including Semirara Mining Corp. which fell 13.8 percent to P100.80. Puregold Price Club Inc. lost 6.5 percent to P44.10, while DMCI Holdings Inc. dipped 5.5 percent to P12.28.
Foreign investors bought more shares than they sold, resulting in net foreign buying of P6.8 billion last week. Foreign buying reached P28.61 billion while foreign selling amounted to P21.72 billion.