Little movement seen as investors move to sidelines near Lenten holiday

Stocks staged a modest rebound last week but this trend could well be short-lived as the advent of Holy Week and the lack of fresh catalysts for trading continue to weigh down on market sentiment.

At the close of last Friday’s trading, the Phisix rose 14.83 points or 1.04 percent week-on-week to 1,446.40 on the back of a recovery in key index issues like Ayala Land, Meralco, Equitable PCI Bank, ABS-CBN, Metro Pacific and ICTSI.

"The index’s positive close could be attributed to professional money managers who bought and sold to give their portfolios the best look as the fiscal quarter came to an end," Wise Securities research head Jose Vistan said.

He said stocks would not make much headway going into an extended Lenten holiday as the traditional thin trading and the lack of market-moving development forces investors to the sidelines.

"The market is going to act like this until we get a better picture of where the economy is headed. But when the cloud passes, investors will realize that the country’s fundamentals are not going to get worse although it is not seen to improve either," Vistan said in an investment report at the PhilStocks.net website.

Spencer Yap of BPI Securities (bpitrade.com) added that bargain hunters are likely to be accumulating selected battered issues which should do better or continue to post growth this year.

"The first quarter is over and we may see some positioning within April just before the release of first quarter results," he said.

However, Yap said the market’s sentiment will also be influenced by the events in the political scene in the coming local and congressional elections in May.

"Vaccilating movements in other major markets due to fears of a slowdown in the US will also affect domestic market sentiment," he said.

Vistan added that with all the uncertainties that are hounding the market, only one thing appears certain "and that is we have reached a point where some select buying for the long term appears in order" although he warned this should be done with caution.