Muted trade seen

The local stock market will reopen Thursday after a long break, but investors expect muted trading to prevail.

Last week, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 54.70 points, or 0.94 percent, to finish the year at 5,889.83. This also marked a modest gain of 1.33 percent for the full year.

AB Capital Securities analyst Abbygayle Estrella said movement in the two trading days of the week could go either way.

“The main index could also catch up on the developments abroad, among which is the market effect of the US economic data scheduled this week,” she said. “While knee-jerk reactions are uncontrollable, external developments are already pronounced, such as the certainty of the gradual tapering and the expected slowdown in economic growth, post-“Yolanda,” which we think are already priced in.”—Doris C. Dumlao