With new economic data ahead, PSEi aims to stabilize tricky position

Investors will be monitoring new economic data releases and first quarter earnings, which could serve as potential catalysts for the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) that is currently hovering above a key support level.

The PSEi slipped 0.1 percent the past week to close at 6,481.91, data from the stock exchange showed.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said upcoming economic data releases included balance of payments and cash remittances from overseas Filipino workers.

What’s next?

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) next policy meeting, meanwhile, is scheduled for May 18. This early, however, investors are already placing their bets on the regulator’s next move.

Ricafort said the BSP could decide to pause interest rate hikes “if inflation continues to ease or could possibly match an expected 0.25 [US Federal Reserve] rate hike on May 3, 2023.”

The US government announced last week that consumer prices in March rose 0.1 percent, below the 0.2-percent average forecast by economists.

However, the core inflation print of 0.4 percent, while in line with expectations, indicated further rate hikes were needed to tame the surge in prices.

For the PSEi, Ricafort said the 6,420 level was acting as an important support zone.

The next support levels were 6,330 and then 6,272 to 6,249 while the next important resistance levels were from 6,530 to 6,580, he said.

—Miguel R. Camus INQ