Weak trading seen

THE LOCAL stock barometer is seen to reopen with caution today following another bloodbath in Wall Street on Friday but possibly recover later in the week.

Last week, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 125.93 point or 1.9 percent to close at 6,449.50 on Friday. It entered “bear” territory last week, having fallen by about 20 percent since the peak finish at 8,127.48 on April 10, 2015.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc., said the market might remain sluggish today following the gloomy appetite in Wall Street, when the closely watched Dow Jones industrial index shed 390.97 points or 2.39 percent to close at 15,988.08.

Roxas said the jitters in the US might be an overreaction to lower-than-expected consumer spending, which could turn out to be a glitch. But even if consumer spending remained weak in the following months, he said this could only mean that the US Fed would have to hold off further rate increases, which would be good for risk appetite.

He said the PSEi might open sluggish but end the week a little higher than last week. Moving forward, Roxas said he expected the market to move out of bear territory.  Doris Dumlao-Abadilla