PSEi firms up after 3-day decline

MOST local stocks firmed up on Monday, halting a three-day slump, as regional markets cheered China’s fresh monetary stimulus and the latest US jobs data.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index added 14.69 points or 0.19 percent to close at 7,777.90 amid mixed market sentiment.

Across the region, markets were mostly higher as China slashed its key interest rate for the third time in six months in a bid to pump-prime the economy. Investors also took their cue from Wall Street, which gained on Friday after the latest US jobs data showed an increase in non-farm payrolls and a drop in jobless rate dropped to a near seven-year low of 5.4 percent last month.

The financial, services and property counters ended higher while the industrial, holding firm and mining/oil counters declined.

Total value turnover amounted to P5.73 billion. Despite the modest gain eked out by the main index, market breadth was negative. There were 96 decliners which outnumbered 85 advancers while 43 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi’s gains were led by AGI, Metrobank, Bloomberry and ALI while BDO, GTCAP, JG Summit, AP and Jollibee also contributed.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable gainer was Melco Crown whuch surged by 8.32 percent.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s rise was curbed by the decline of LTG (-2.97 percent). Lopez-led FGEN also fell by 1.83 percent. Non-PSEi stock Lopez slumped by 7.11 percent.

URC, PLDT, SMIC and EDC also declined.

“For this week, we expect choppy movements between 20- and 100-day moving average (MA) due to high volatility which may even pierce these key levels during intraday. We still advise a cautious buying strategy as the index is faced with a lot of selling pressure, especially that prices are trading near key support,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital.

“Bullish condition is still to breach 20-day MA to provide enough momentum to retest 8,000. On the other hand, breaking 100-day MA will allow more corrections to 50 percent fibonacci (7,508), followed by 61.8% fibonacci (7,360),” Limlingan said.