Campaign fever, business pickup energizing stock market

Investors would be on the lookout for signs of economic recovery with the further reopening of business activity and movements in commodity prices.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 1.7 percent last week to end at 7,124.84 as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept the key interest rates at a record-low 2 percent.

Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a research note that recent gains also came as the 45-day local campaign period started on March 25.

This could “entail increased spending for the said local campaign, thereby could boost economic/business activities and could also benefit some listed companies in terms of higher sales, net income and valuations.”

He pointed to other trends such as efforts to further reopen the economy and resume in-person school alongside measures to mitigate higher prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For the PSEi, the next support range was seen from 6,900 to 6,800 and then 6,700 to 6,600. Defending those areas would “help keep intact the underlying upward trend over the past eight months,” Ricafort said. INQ