Stocks cross 9,000 barrier, end at new peak

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market made history yesterday after it finally closed above the 9,000 mark, the highest closing level ever.

After consistently flirting with the 9,000-mark throughout the week, the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) finally breached the 9,000 level, recording a new record high of 9,041.20.

The stock market gauge gained 42.03 points or 0.46 percent. Similarly, the broader All Shares index gained 24.07 points, or 0.45 percent, to finish at 5,269.32.

Clearly, the positive momentum has been sustained and most of the major indexes closed in positive zone except for the mining and oil and financials sectors.

Among the different indexes, the holding firms led the gains, rallying by 1.08 percent.

However, total value turnover fell below the P8 billion mark, amounting to P7.831 billion. Market breadth was positive, 110 to 97 while 52 issues were left unchanged.

Manny Ocampo of Abacus Securities said the positive momentum may continue in the coming days but a correction is bound to happen as well.

He said it’s going purely on momentum, noting that the index probably has another 100 to 150 points to go on the topside.

“We will probably see corrections coming in the first quarter,” Ocampo said.

Moving forward, he said the market index may correct and revert to the 8,600 level.

Market investors, he said, would be closely monitoring corporate earnings which may start coming within the next few weeks.

For those looking for bargains, he said, cycles will be a lot shorter and that anything around the 8,800 to 8,600 would be an opportunity for people to get back in the market.

Beyond local developments, Ocampo said market investors would also be keeping a close watch on the US Federal Reserve’s actions on interest rates and the reaction of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

He said interest rates would go up in reaction to inflation. “We’ll see what happens with corporate performance,” he said.

Analysts and investors were expecting the market to breach the 9,000 mark earlier than expected instead of the coming months.

With the momentum and barring unexpected developments in the local and global environments, the experts see the market index soaring higher.

 Some said the market index may hit 9,300 this year or even as high as 9,400.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks extended their winning run to the 11th day yesterday, while the battered dollar won back some ground after President Donald Trump said he wanted a strong US currency.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.25 percent for the day, led by gains in Chinese financial and property shares.

It headed for its 11th straight day of gains, the longest sequence since 2015, and also for seventh straight week of gains for the first time since 2010.

Japan’s Nikkei ended down 0.2 percent.

World equity markets have rallied over the past year, buoyed by a synchronized uptick in global economic growth in a boon to corporate profits and stock valuations.