Top stocks for the week

For this week, SSI Group, Inc., the country’s largest specialty retailer, is the most recommended stock after its entry in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), with an analyst thinking that the firm remained undervalued from the time it joined the local stock market.

Brokerage firm Nieves Securities, Inc. analyst Miko Sayo is recommending market participants to consider investing on SSI Group’s shares for its potential as a stock and as a company itself.

“SSI Group is still undervalued but it has a lot of potentials,” Sayo said.

The last traded price of SSI stood at 8.12, up 1.50 percent from its opening price of 7.99 on Friday. From the time of its listing, the company’s stock price has already soared to an all-time high close of 8.15 per stock.

The company concluded its initial public offering in the previous week, raising a total amount of 7.45 billion. The company saw its share price rising to 8.49 at the opening of the trade, higher than its listing price of 7.50 per share.

Other than SSI, Sayo also cited other top performing stocks last week, joining other companies such as Leisure and Resorts World Cop. (LRWC), Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC), and Suntrust Home Developers Inc.

Sayo said LRWC and PLC generally performed well in the past few trades because of the bright outlook in the country’s gaming sector.

On Friday, LRWC closed at 11.68 per share from 11.66, while PLC closed a little lower at 2.10 from 2.12 Thursday closing price.

Suntrust, on the other hand, was considered a speculative stock because it will soon hold its annual stockholders meeting where the board of the company will likely announce the company’s growth and expansion plans.

For BPI Asset Management, Inc., the best performing companies in the local stock market in past few trades were Semirara Mining and Power Corp.,, up 3.87 percent to 123.60; Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, which climbed 3.09 percent to 85 apiece; BDO Unibank, Inc., which increased 2.62 percent to 105.70; and Globe Telecom, Inc., up 2.42 percent to 1,690.00.

The worst performing stocks, on the other hand were, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, down 1.73 percent to 51.00, Jollibee Foods Corp., down 1.37 percent to

194.20; and Bank of the Philippine Islands, down 1.15 percent to 94.55.