Stocks likely to trade sideways

MANILA, Philippines — The index may trade sideways this week as investors sit on the sidelines awaiting the decision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on interest rates, traders said.

 “As for the market this week, investors will take a look at the upcoming BSP policy meeting which has a hawkish stance to wane inflation. Another thing is that the market may rebound as five straight days of selling pressure were seen by the market. Most of the large-cap index stocks such as banks and others have hit 52-week lows,” Piper Chaucer Tan, research associate at Philstocks Financials said.

Thus, he said, the market may see sideways movement in the early days of this week’s trading.

Christopher Mangun, head of research of Eagle Equities, said that if the BSP raises rates this week, the market may climb as this would come as a positive sign to investors that something is being done to curb the higher inflation.

“Another positive effect of an interest hike is it may encourage foreign funds to flow back in as our currency has performed better than what is expected. If the index can hold support at 7,350, this may boost the index and continue a positive momentum,” he said.

Last week, the PSE did not do quite as well as global markets. Asian markets like the Nikkei and the Hang Seng were up more than two percent.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended the week down 30.15 points, or 0.41 percent, to close at 7,838.00. 

“We would have had a bad week if not for the major recovery on Friday as the index was down more than four percent by Thursday. Investors were cautious as the index broke below the 7,500 key support level last week. Investors were not willing the buy up the blue-chips anticipating foreign investors to keep dumping. On the last day of the week, investors came in with a vengeance buying up everything which is exactly what this market needed. Several blue-chips were up more than five percent with turnover value hitting P11.2-billion. The index was up 3.5 percent on Friday which is the biggest one-day gain going all the way back to January 2016,” Mangun said.