Phl bourse to sustain robust performance
The Philippine stock market is expected to continue its robust performance this year on the back of continued economic growth.
"At this point, there is no doubt that the PSE index is very strong," Marco Nino Velasco, trader at Maybank ATR Kim Eng, told The FREEMAN yesterday.
"On a short term perspective, this is probably driven by those investors who are buying back shares after hibernating during the 2017 holidays. When people buy, prices go up," he said.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index opened higher yesterday at 8,743.41.
The PSEi even surpassed the 8,800-level as the market closed noon yesterday, hitting 8,830.76.
"On a longer term perspective, the main driver of the PSE is the continuing economic growth of the Philippines," Velasco said.
"Manufacturing has been robust lately and is seen to retain its momentum in the years to come," he added.
He believes the government's Build, Build, Build Program will benefit a lot of industries.
"I believe the government is focusing on making roads better to make trade faster. With the tension with China eased, expect a play in petroleum as explorations for sure will commence in the previously disputed areas," he said.
"The mining sector is also seen to come back. We can't do away without mining. It has to be responsible mining though. All these are on top of the BPO revenues and OFW remittances," he noted.
The local stock market finished the year strong on the back of investor optimism with respect to the income tax reform program.
In its weekly review for this week, BPI Asset Management said: "Investor optimism with respect to the income tax reform program (including the package one that has already been passed and the subsequent package likely to be pushed in 1Q18) provided support for the gains.
Following the record high close of PSEi on the first trading day of 2018 at 8,724.13, PSE President and CEO Ramon Monzon earlier said in a statement: "The back-to-back closing at new record highs on the first trading day of 2018 and last trading day of 2017 is an auspicious sign for our stock market. Investor confidence and optimism were very apparent in today's trading and we hope our market will remain robust for most of the year."
The Philippine stock market closed at a record high of 8,558.42 on December 29, the last trading day of 2017, reflecting an annual growth of 25.1 percent year-onyear.
Average daily value turnover for 2017 rose by 3.2 percent to P8.06 billion from P7.81 billion in 2016 while market capitalization in 2017 reached an all-time high of P17.58 trillion. Net foreign buying for the year was an impressive P56.21 billion compared with P2.80 billion in 2016.