Stocks are expected to sustain their rally and reach a new all-time high this week, driven by fund flows and data releases locally and globally.
Analysts said the market could re-test the Philippine Stock Exchange index’s all time high of 8,136 points in the near-term.
“Chartwise, the week’s close at 8,030.06 [on Friday] continues to support the market has still some gas to retry the 8,136 levels in the near-term. However, one may note that momentum indicators are at overbought territory and volume is declining. An early indication that the market may be nearing a top,” BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said.
Luis Limlingan, managing director of Regina Capital Development Corp., advised investors to have a more careful approach especially on accumulating positions as the lack of significant pullbacks could increase the probability of a downward reversal.
“We prefer a pullback to 7,800 level this week to provide a breathing room for prices and allow formation of higher low bases to sustain the upward trend,” Limlingan said.
PSE president and chief executive Hans Sicat attributed the market’s strong performance last week to positive developments overseas and expectations of positive second-quarter financial report of listed companies.
“While Asian markets, including ourselves, benefitted from positive news abroad, moving past the 8,000 level shows that investor confidence in our market remains high and provides some early momentum as companies prepare to disclose their mid-year earnings results in the coming weeks,” Sicat said.
The PSEi, the 30-company benchmark, surged 3.3 percent over last week’s five-day market trading to close at 8,030.06 on July 15, on stronger-than-expected US jobs addition in June and the Philippines’ victory in arbitration over West Philippine Sea. The bellwether was also up 15.5 percent since the start of the year.
All sub-inidices ended in the green led by property which jumped 7 percent, followed by holding firms which rose 3.1 percent and financials which increased 2 percent.
Hot money from foreign investors continued to flow in the stock market, registering a net buying of P7.4 billion last week, as total foreign buying hit P27.9 billion while foreign selling amounted to P20.5 bullion.
Top gainers last week were Megaworld Corp. which climbed 10.5 percent to P5.14, Petron Corp. which went up 9.1 percent to P11.22 and SM Prime Holdings Inc. which advanced 9.1 percent to P30.
Losers included Roxas and Co. Inc. which declined 4.2 percent to P2.30, Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc., which went down by 4.1 percent to P3.04 and LBC Express Holdings Inc. which dropped 3 percent to P12.94.
