Stock index seen hitting 6,700 this year

MANILA, Philippines - The bellwether index may end past 6,700 this year, brokerage firm AB Capital Securities, Inc. said. In a briefing, AB Capital Securities research head Jose Vistan said the index may also reach the 7,800 level next year.

The outlook is based on expectations of the country’s strong economic performance and liquidity.

“We see a six percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth. That is the second highest in the region and it is also much higher than the global average GDP growth of 4.8 percent,” Vistan said.

“Liquidity will continue to be strong,” he added.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index ended at 5,889.83 in the last trading day of 2013,

1.32 percent or 77.1 points up from the previous year’s 5,812.73.

Vistan said that while the equities market is seen to be in a correction phase in the first-half, the second semester is seen to have better performance primarily because of positive outlook for earnings growth going in to next year.

For this year, he said earnings growth is still seen although at a slower pace.

From double-digit earnings growth posted in 2011 and 2012, growth slowed to around nine percent last year.

“We expect it to slowdown a little more to around seven percent for this year,” he said.

As for buying stocks, AB Capital recommends those in the consumer, property as well as gaming sectors.

“The reason why we want these sectors is because these are outperformers in terms of growth. We mentioned that projection for earnings growth is seven percent, these sectors will grow at least 17  to 32 percent,” Vistan said.

“Given slow growth scenario, we are also recommending high dividend yielding stocks for investors,” he added.

AB Capital Securities, is one of the oldest stock brokerage houses in the PSE.

Based on the Trust Officers Association of the Philippines Units Investment Trust Funds (UITF) Resource Center, the firm’s AB Capital Equity Fund was the best equity performer last year with 6.46 percent return on investment.