Earnings reports to boost market

MANILA, Philippines - The local stock market, fresh from hitting an all-time high last week, is expected to get a boost from robust earnings reports of listed firms

“The present earnings season should give investors enough reason to push the index past the 5,500-level,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., analyst at Accord Capital Equities.

Calaycay said the market will then ease back and prepare for a final push to at least the lower end of the 5,600-5,800 range, driven by the traditionally bullish Yuletide season.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.81 percent or 44.28 points to close the week at 5,468.79 from 5,424.51 on Oct. 31, the last trading day before the long weekend.

The PSEi, the benchmark for local market’s performance, hit an all-time high for two consecutive sessions on the back of strong third quarter corporate income reports and benign inflation for October.

The bellwether index rose to a new record-high of 5,457.82 on Monday and 5,473.61 on Tuesday before retreating in the next two sessions.

“We have experienced a good market when investors opted to focus on the prospects of the local economy and the concomitant positive impact on listed firms’ earnings,” Calaycay said.

Blue chip firms like Ty-led GT Capital and Sy-led SM Investments Corp. have reported strong nine-month income on the back of continuous growth in consumer spending.

However, Calaycay said investors are still wary of the economic woes in the US, Europe, China and Japan.

“At this point, this remains consistent with the outlook we propounded at the beginning of the year when we set the year-end PSEi target band at the 5,600 to 5,800 range,” Calaycay said.