Market to remain volatile this week

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market is expected to remain volatile this week although investor confidence is slowly coming back as governments across the globe step up efforts to respond to the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic, according to traders.

“Last week’s close at 5,266.62 highlights the technical rebound has still some gas to try the 5,500 to 5,800 level in the near-term. Expect some profit-taking as we near these levels,” BDO Research said in a comment.

Last week, the Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 10.21 percent week-on-week for the first time in five weeks to close at  5,266.62.

BDO Research said this shows that “investor confidence is coming back after all the king’s men and all the king’s horses are moving together to shore up the local and global economy.” 

“The US rally helped dispelled some of the gloom. This reprieve is temporary since the pandemic is still spreading locally and globally,” BDO Research said.

Piper Chaucer Tan of Philstocks Financials said the market may remain volatile and might take cues from the US market.

“Fiscal stimulus coming from the US government might seem pricing in to the market for this week, but investors might take a look on how will the government control, slow the pace or should I say flatten the curve in cases in US, but also here in the Philippines,” Tan said.

He said that the net foreign selling figure is supporting his argument that the market might be volatile this week.

“If you look at our net foreign transactions, we are still on a selling position since March 12, totaling at around P11 billion,” he said.

“In terms of value turnover we have an averaging of P7.2 billion since the start of enhanced community quarantine and also we think investors are looking right now for short rallies since the market is very volatile and might remain volatile up until the end of March. We expect the PSEi initial support at 5000 and resistance at 5700 next week,” Tan said.