Market breaks 6,000-pt mark: PSEi seen to hit 6,800 this year

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine stock market continued its bull run yesterday, breaking the 6,000-point mark for the first time in the 86-year history of stock trading in the country as investors cheered the  positive economic news here and abroad.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index rallied by 1.23 percent, or 73.46 points, to post another record close at 6,044.91, which is also the new intraday high.

Analysts are expecting share prices  to continue posting robust growth this year, giving investors decent returns on the back of a strong uptick in corporate earnings and the economy.  They said the  PSEi   will likely hit the 6,680 to 6,800-point mark this year.  

All subindices were in the green, led by the mining and oil sector  which rose by 1.79 percent or 358.56 points to 20,396.43 while financial firms added 1.57 percent or 24.37 points to 1,576.95.

Advancers outpaced decliners, 107 to 71, while 39 stocks remained unchanged as trading value hit P8.511 billion.

Yesterday’s close was the fourth consecutive record high notched by the PSEi since trading resumed on Wednesday, Jan.  2, after pausing for the New Year holidays. The market lodged 38 all-time highs last year.

“We are very proud to have reached and breached the 6,000 level which affirm that market liquidity continues to be strong and investor sentiment remain positive over good news both locally and abroad,” said PSE president and CEO Hans B. Sicat.

“Basically, most investors took directions from Wall Street’s latest ascent last Friday,” Freya B. Natividad, investment analyst at brokerage firm 2Trade-Asia.com, said in a phone interview.

“Investors also factored in the benign inflation outlook for the year as well as aggressive government and private spending on top of the first half election spending,” Natividad added.

Philippine inflation in December was only 2.9 percent, bringing the full year inflation figures to 3.2 percent that is at the lower end of the central bank’s 3-5 percent target.

“We continue to get good numbers like the benign inflation data last week,” said Bede Lovell S. Gomez, assistant vice-president of First Metro Investment Corp.

“There is a favorable sentiment coming out from the regional and global market,” he added.

Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed last week at a five-year high as the US evaded the fiscal cliff.

In the local market, most actively traded shares were in the green, led by Megaworld Corp. that surged by 8.82 percent while BDO Unibank Inc. inched up by 0.74 percent.

“For the rest of the week, there might be re-testing of new highs,” Natividad said, adding that immediate support level is at 5,930-5,960 while resistance is at 6,100.