Positive data could lift stock market

THE stock market could trade higher this week, an analyst said, with economic developments likely to overshadow a third quarter growth letdown.

“Despite GDP ( gross domestic product) numbers coming in below estimates, analysts are optimistic that economic data will improve in the to have plateaued, oil prices continued to drop and the currency got stronger,” Eagle Equities Inc. research head Christopher Mangun said.

“There is a strong possibility that investors will start getting back into this market and begin picking up issues that have been heavily battered this year,” he added.

The government last week reported that the economy had grown by 6.1 percent in the third quarter, slowing from the upwardly revised 6.2 percent (from 6.0 percent previously) in the April-June period.

It also announced that inflation

stayed steady at 6.7 percent in October from a month earlier. While still well above the 2.0-4.0 percent target, the result snapped a string of monthly increases since the start of 2018.

The currency, meanwhile, returned to the P52:$1 level ahead of the growth announcement, closing at P52.95 to the dollar on Wednesday. It further improved to P52.57:$1 on Thursday before settling at P52.96:$1 on Friday.

“Although the index did not close at a higher high which we would have liked to see, the fact that it did not close lower than its lowest close last week is a big positive,” Mangun added, referring to

“This tells me that it wants to go up and is doing everything it can

P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said the results of this Thursday’s Monetary Board

in investor decisions.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index fell to the 6,900 level on Friday, losing 0.95 percent or 66.89 points to close at 6,968.82. The wider All Shares dropped 0.47

at 4,269.88.

Week-on-week, the index was down by 2.40 percent or 171.47 points.