PSEi holds fort ahead of influential Fed Meeting

The stock barometer continued to climb on Tuesday on selective buying of large cap stocks ahead of a much-awaited US Federal Reserve meeting.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 28.66 points or 0.4 percent to close at 7,261.75, rising for the second session.
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“With no economic data Monday, investors were instead focusing on the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting that kicks off Tuesday,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

Limlingan noted that overnight, US stocks had closed marginally higher after switching between small gains and losses on Monday as investors refrained from making sizeable bets ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting that was widely expected to deliver an interest rate increase.

At the local market, the day’s gains were led by the financial, industrial, holding firm and services counters.

On the other hand, the mining/oil counter was down by 2.77 percent amid the challenging regulatory environment brought about by the government’s antimining bias.

Despite the PSEi’s slight gain, market breadth was negative. There were 105 decliners against 86 advancers, while 48 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by ICTSI, which surged by 5.04 percent and was the day’s most actively traded stock.  ICTSI announced on Tuesday the opening of Puerto Aguadulce, a joint venture terminal in Port of Buenaventura, Colombia. The first phase of the $550-million world class multi-use container and bulk handling facility can handle mega container vessels with capacities of up to 18,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).

On Monday, ICTSI also reported a 207-percent surge in net income to $180 million.

Read more: http://business.inquirer.net/226146/psei-holds-fort-ahead-influential-fed-meeting

PSEi back to 7,200 as SM rebounds

The local stock barometer climbed back to the 7,200 level on Monday as leading conglomerate SM Investments recouped most losses from Friday’s sell-off.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 86.82 points or 1.21 percent to close at 7,233.09 on the first day of the PSEi’s rebalancing.

All counters went up, led by holding firms, which firmed up by 1.9 percent due to SM’s rebound.

SM bounced by 7.76 percent to close at P645.50. To recall, SM slid by 9.24 percent last Friday as fund managers scrambled to realign their portfolios ahead of today’s main index rebalancing.

Effective today (Monday, March 13), SM’s weight (in PSEi) was reduced by 0.51 percent along with the removal of Emperador to accommodate the inclusion of Puregold with a 1-percent weight in the index. Ron Acoba, chief investment strategist at equities research provider Trading Edge, explained that the sharp drop seen on Friday was because index funds that track the PSEi appeared to be worth more than P100 billion which sold 0.5 percent of their SM shares at Friday’s closing.

When asked whether SM had bought back shares from the open market on Monday, SM investor relations chief Cora Guidote said the rebound by driven by bargain-hunting. “A lot of investors had been waiting for a buying window. Since the drop in shares last week was purely technical, investors took advantage,” Guidote said.

Apart from SM’s rebound, the upswing in the local market also reflected mostly firmer regional markets.

“After much market drama, another rate increase from the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) now looks like a forgone conclusion when the committee members meet later this week. This information is already being discounted into the market,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

In addition, Limlingan noted that US non-farm payrolls had increased by 235,000 in February with a 9,000 upward revision to the prior two months, moderately above consensus expectations. Meanwhile, he noted that US jobless ratio had edged down to 4.7 percent, one tenth below Fed officials’ estimate.

Read more: http://business.inquirer.net/226080/psei-back-7200-sm-rebounds

Philippine Stocks Watch-list : MAR 2017

Philippine Stocks Watch-list using Warren-buffett stocks filter applied to PSE

To learn the technique of Warren-buffett follow the link below:

http://ph-uvs.blogspot.com/2016/09/warren-buffett-stock-101_27.html

Philippine Stocks Watch-list : FEB 2017

Philippine Stocks Watch-list using Warren-buffett stocks filter applied to PSE

To learn the technique of Warren-buffett follow the link below:

http://ph-uvs.blogspot.com/2016/09/warren-buffett-stock-101_27.html

COL: It’s the year to buy stocks

This 2017 is an opportune year for investors to accumulate Philippine stocks especially whenever the stock barometer falls below its fair valuation of 7,500, leading online stock brokerage COL Financial said.

In a press briefing on Monday, COL head of research April Lee-Tan said it would be difficult to justify premium valuations at present given “unexciting” earnings prospects from corporate Philippines this year. COL expects average corporate earnings to rise by 6.9 percent this year, slower than previous years.

She also cited numerous risks, including higher inflation and interest rates, the weak peso and President Duterte’s policies that may prove “painful” over the short term, including his tax reform program.

But COL continued to have a favorable long-term view on the Philippine economy and the stock market, Tan said. She said the same policies that may be painful in the short-term would be beneficial in the long term, Tan added.

COL said the government needed to implement tax reforms to raise enough funds to meet its goal of increasing disbursements from around 18.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 to around 20.2 percent in 2019.

Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/224147/col-year-buy-stocks