PSEi seen targeting 6,800

The local stock barometer is seen attempting to breach the 6,800 mark this week, the start of trading in the new Lunar Year of the Fire Monkey.

Last week, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 1.16 percent to close on Friday at 6,765.13. Trading resumes today after the long weekend break.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities, said on Monday that the market might modestly rise this week. Jonathan Ravelas, chief strategist at Banco de Oro Unibank, said recovering oil prices had alleviated some fears of a slowdown in global growth, lifting investor sentiment last week.

As such, he said a test of the 6,800 could be expected this week. “A break above 6,800 could test the 7,000 levels,” Ravelas said. However, he said a failure to break 6,800 “could prompt some profit-taking and retest the 6,400 levels.”

Investors are seen to draw clues from the start of the fourth quarter/full-year 2015 corporate earnings reporting season in evaluating earnings prospects for 2016. Market consensus expects Philippine corporate earnings to grow by an average 11.2 percent this year compared to 9.7 percent in 2015.

On Thursday, the policy-making Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is set to conduct its first monetary policy meeting for the year. The local monetary authority is seen keeping the country’s key monetary settings unchanged. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla