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Friday, March 29, 2024

Stocks likely to move sideways

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Share prices are expected to move sideways this week as the lack of near-term catalysts will keep the market from gaining ground.

BDO Unibank Inc chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the market’s failure to hit 8,300 points last week highlighted its vulnerability to sell-offs.

“Look for another attempt of the 8,300 levels, as the market printed a new year-to-date and intra-week high at 8,213.72. Failure for the market to stay above the 8,000 levels could signal more profit-taking activities back to 7,500/7,800 levels,” Ravelas said.

Papa Securities trader Gabriel Jose Perez said investors may look overseas for guidance given the lack of catalysts on the domestic front.

Meanwhile, with some corporate earnings scheduled to be released over the next couple of weeks, analysts said investors would be looking for guidance on how companies would perform for 2019.

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Globe Telecom Inc. is scheduled to release its 2018 financial report on Feb. 12, followed by Ayala Land on Feb. 15 and DM Wenceslao & Associates Inc. on Feb. 18.

After five consecutive weeks of weekly increases, the Philippine Stock Exchange Index last week closed slipped 0.9 percent at 8,070.89, while the broader All Shares Index declined 0.3 percent to 4,896.32 on lack of local and foreign catalysts.

Except for the mining and oil and services, all other sub-indices fell, led by industrial (-1.23 percent), holding firms (-0.89 percent), financial (-0.37 percent) and property (-0.20 percent).

Overseas investors continue to invest in the local stocks as the market registered a net foreign buying of P2.89 billion.

Weekly top price gainers were Nickel Asia Corp., which surged 15.2 percent to P2.86; Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., which rose 9.1 percent to P6.50; and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which advanced 8.6 percent to P12.06.

Weekly top price losers were PLDT Inc., which declined 5.56 percent to P1,240; Petron Corp., which dropped 3.8 percent to P7.20; and Aboitiz Power Corp., which lost 3.7 percent to P37.75.

Meanwhile, global stocks mostly fell Friday amid worries over slowing global growth and continued uncertainty on US-China trade talks.

Key European stock markets were all lower at the close, with Frankfurt again the weakest performer and Paris and London also retreating.

US stocks also were under pressure, spending most of the day in the red before recovering and ending nearly unchanged.

“After the rebound in January, we go back to fundamentals,” said Maris Ogg, analyst, and portfolio manager at Tower Bridge Advisors, who said commentary from companies during earnings season had emphasized sluggishness in Europe and China.

“If the deceleration continues in Europe and China, it will be very difficult for the US alone to buck against these trends,” Ogg said. “The logical approach is to take some risk off the table.”

Analysts cited the latest signals on US-China trade talks, which were not especially upbeat. 

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he did not expect to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline for the two economic powers to reach a deal before new tariff actions came into effect. With AFP

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