Trading resumes

The local stock market is set to resume trading today after a two-day trading break.

During the last trading day on Monday, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 69.31 points or 0.84 percent to close at 8,365.26, driven mostly by domestic investors’ buying activities as the local corporate earnings reporting season started.

Last week, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed a total of 125 points or 1.5 percent to close on Friday at 8,295.95.

Bull territory

In their latest issue of The Market Call, investment house First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) and University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) said the PSEi had entered bull territory as it had broken through resistance barriers with foreign net buying amounting to P29 billion the third quarter, bulk of which poured in September.

“With foreign fund managers finding US stocks overvalued, they look toward emerging markets to capture better returns. Upcoming third quarter income reports should be above average for the uptrend to be sustained,” FMIC and UA&P said.

“With high volume and continued defiance of support levels, the breakout confirms the new bull run of the PSEi,” the research said.

But in case of disappointment over third quarter earnings reports, FMIC-UA&P said this could scuttle the run-up.

Since the start of the year, the PSEi has gained a total of 1,524.62 points or 22.2 percent from the end-2016 level of 6,840.64.