THE local stock market is seen trading with a bearish bias this week as Wall Street and other regional markets were hitting short-term peaks alongside the dearth of incentives to load up on local equities.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange composite index gained a marginal 0.79 percent last week to close at 2,931.47 on Friday, boosted by the fresh excitement over Manila Electric Co. and Philex Mining Corp.

“I won’t be surprised if the index loses 2-3 percentage [points],” said Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at local brokerage Campos Lanuza & Co.

Lacson said the Dow Jones, which was now struggling to keep afloat at 10,000, may lead the correction this week. He noted that other Asian markets like in Hong Kong have already succumbed to downward correction, except that the market last week was perked up by the telecommunications and energy sectors.

But the excitement on Meralco has fizzled out, given that a buyout deal hatched by the group of Manuel V. Pangilinan with the Lopez family to match a P300-a-share bid of Henry Sy Jr. was structured in such a way as to avoid a tender offer to other shareholders. Meralco shares fell below P200 and tumbled 12 percent on Friday.

Lacson said the index might head toward 2,800 this week. He added that the third quarter earnings performances of most major corporations have already been factored in by the market.

Lopez-related stocks, which have seen some run-up in the last few weeks, are not expected to shine anymore.

Since the start of the year, the PSEi has gone up by 56.5 percent.