Shares seen moving up despite slim trade volume

Share prices will likely post slight gains next week but trading will be slim with many investors on extended Christmas holidays, analysts said.

"We will see slight gains for the whole week coupled with thin trading volumes because of the holidays. We will only have (three) trading sessions next week and a lot of market players would already be on vacation," said Lawrence de Leon of Accord Capital Equities Inc.

Monday and Friday are public holidays, and some investors are expected to take advantage of this to take the whole week off.

"Selective stock picking characterized with low volume turnover may continue to dominate the market next week," said Mark Alan Cañizares of Citiseconline.com.

"The main index might move higher, but we can’t really say whether that trend can be sustained given the limited number of players in the market," Cañizares remarked.

"The index is up (this week). It shows there is optimism in the market moving towards the new year," de Leon said, adding that there would be "window dressing before the end of year" as well.

For the week ending Dec. 23, the composite index rose 3.1 percent or 63.9 points to 2,111.46.

Average daily turnover for the week fell to 348.1 million shares valued at P728.2 million from 688.7 million shares worth P1.02 billion in the previous week. — AFP