Shares rise for third day

The local stock market gained for the third day as the Philippines is seen to be largely safe from the effects of the trade war between economic giants US and China.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index advanced 16.85 points or 0.23 percent to 7,350.58 although the Mining and Oil and Property counters declined. Total volume of trades inched up to 2.13 billion shares worth R5.53 billion.

“Philippine markets continue to be perceived as a safe haven when US stocks fell sharply after the Trump administration announced new tariffs on Chinese goods,” said Regina Capital Development Corporation Managing Director Luis Limlingan.

RCDC said “at this level, the index is clearly making an attempt at its month-long resistance of 7,415.00, with increasing momentum. Even indicators are beginning to show early signs of bullishness, at least for the short term.”

It noted though that, “even if the index broke out of the already resilient support, it faces another important-level at 7,480… Given how potentially strong this resistance could be for the index, most conservative course of action is to Sell on Rallies, and take advantage of the local bourse' recent positive movement.”

Confidence is slowly returning to Philippine shares after the benchmark index sank into bear territory last month, plunging as much as 23 percent amid rising inflation, US-China trade worries and a weakening in the peso.

The PSEi’s valuation of 15.8 times estimated earnings for the next year is now 11 percent below its three-year average, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Most Southeast Asian stock markets also edged higher as broader Asian peers recovered slightly from the previous session's steep losses.