Market likely to test 9,000 level

The bears have started to make their presence felt in the stock market last week but this was not enough to discourage investors, traders said.

They said the market may still try to test the 9,000 mark sooner-than-expected.

“The Philippine Stock Exchange index is still expected to breach of the 9,000-line even as we closely watch if it is able to hold support at the 8,750 to 8,800 range,” said Justino Calaycay of Philstocks Financials Inc.

He said that in general, there are still more optimists who want to invest in the market especially after the passage of the Duterte administration’s tax reform package and the performance of the economy in general.

But Calaycay said the economic data that would soon be released covers the performance for the October to December period and still doesn’t carry the impact of TRAIN, which became effective only last Jan. 1.

“The first quarter numbers will be the straw of judgment,” he said.

Last week, the PSEi ended relatively flat, up half a percent or 45 points. On Monday, the PSEi opened higher but eventually saw it come down and test support level at around 8,700.

Christopher Mangun, head of research of Eagle Equities Inc. said the stock market experienced a pullback last week, which may continue this week before building more momentum to breach the 9,000 mark.

He said that if the market loses a hundred points this week, it can provide market investors some buying opportunities.

“I think we will continue to see the foreigners increase their positions in the weeks to come. With our current path, we will break above 9,000 in the next couple of weeks,” Mangun said.

“We saw some gains on Tuesday and Wednesday which were then erased by the last two days to end the week flat. We continue to see leadership from blue chip issues,” Mangun said.

“We saw somewhat of a pullback last week which I think is going to continue into this week as we create a base between the 8,500 and 8,700 area to build more momentum to breach 9,000,” he said.