Stock index seen to continue firming up

The local stock barometer is seen to firm up for the fifth consecutive week this week while awaiting the stream of second-quarter corporate earnings alongside this Thursday’s Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas monetary setting and second-quarter Philippine economic report.

This is also the last trading week before the “ghost month”–the seventh month of the Lunar calendar and typically a period of low trading volume and greater caution–which will run from Aug. 11 to Sept. 9.

Last week, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added a total of 118.01 points or 1.5 percent to close on Friday at 7,819.39.

BDO Unibank chief strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the PSEi had been boosted by foreign portfolio funds flowing back to the local markets on selective bargain-hunting.

“Look for a sustained climb above the 7,800 levels in the near-term to see test of 8,000 levels,” Ravelas said.

However, Ravelas said failure to stay above 7,800 could call for further losses toward the 7,500 levels.

Christopher Mangun, head of research at Eagle Equities Inc., said investors were starting to really come into the market with value turnover last week improving to P30.49 billion. He also noted that foreign inflows turned positive last week, for the second week in a row, with net foreign buying of P1.06 billion.