Stocks continue dizzying climb

The local stocks index breached the 6,700-mark for the first time in history Monday as cash-awash investors continued to chase yields, driving equities valuations to dizzying heights.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 56.27 points or 0.84 percent to close at the day’s peak of 6,721.33. This marked the PSEi’s 21st record breakout for the year, making some stock dealers jittery about valuations.

All counters were up but the sharpest uptick was posted by the industrial (+1.68 percent) and services (+1.08 percent) counters.

“The market continues to remain strong, driven by continued flows domestically and overseas as evidenced by the pickup in value turnover last week versus the previous week. However, we recommend to buy on weakness as the market remains overbought,” said Conra do Bate, president of online stock brokerage COL Financial.

“Advise caution on this sharp rise. A correction may happen soon. Take profit and be on the sidelines in the meantime,” said Ramon Garcia, president of local stock brokerage RTG & Co.

Since the start of the year, the PSEi has gained a total of 908.60 points or 15.6 percent.

Meanwhile, risk appetite was buoyant across the region Monday. Japanese stocks led Asian equities higher.

At the local market, the biggest index gainers on Monday were Megaworld (+4.17 percent), Manila Water (+4.16 percent), RLC (+3.41 percent), AC (+3.33 percent), SMC (+2.5 percent), EDC (+2.43 percent), Philex (+2.27 percent), BDO (+2.27 percent), MPIC (+1.78 percent) and FGEN (+1.74 percent).

Value turnover amounted to P7.81 billion. There were twice as many gainers as there were decliners.

SMIC, the day’s most actively  traded stock, gained by 0.7 percent to close at P1,024. This gave the Sys’ holding firm a market capitalization of P633.61 billion, making it the most valuable company in the stock market, dislodging PLDT’s P620 billion.

Meanwhile, the index laggers for the day were SMDC (-3.97 percent) and BPI (-3.07 percent). SM Prime, Semirara, DMCI also closed in negative territory. Doris C. Dumlao