Stocks seen to rise

DESPITE another holiday-shortened week and increased valuations, investors continued to buy Philippine stocks, paving the way for it to move even higher in the coming days.

Part of the bullishness was due to “hints” that the powerful US Federal Reserve would delay a rate increase to bolster the American economy, according to stockbrokerage firm AB Capital Securities Inc.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended Friday up 0.93 percent, or 74.79 points, to 8,127.48, its 27th all time high for 2015. AB Capital said the PSEi saw three all-time highs during the previous week alone.

“Investors remained bullish amid hints from the US Federal Reserve of a delay in rate hike due to weak jobs data released last week as well as from a lower-than-expected March inflation data,” AB Capital said.

Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc., announced through his official Twitter account on Friday that the week’s closing price suggested that the market would trade within a range of 8,000 to 8,250 this week.

AB Capital, meanwhile, was also watching technical indicators for the PSEi. “Failure to break the resistance levels at 8,165 and 8,190 could send back the index to its support levels found at 7,870 and 7,725,” it said. “As such, recommend profit-taking on rally and continue buying only on dips.”

AB Capital said investors would be taking their cue from a slew of global economic reports this week. These include US data on retail sales, crude oil inventory, China’s gross domestic product and industrial production. Miguel R. Camus