Stocks enter ‘ghost month’ on positive note

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market opened the “ghost month” on a positive note yesterday with the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index ending 52.36 points, or 0.65 percent, higher at 8,098.16.

Likewise, the broader All Shares gauge rose 14.45 points or 0.30 percent to end at 4,904.51.

Most indices were up except for the services, which lost 1.43 percent.

Total value turnover reached P6.659 billion. Market breadth was negative, 116 to 82 while 44 issues were left unchanged.

Chris Mangun of AAA Securities said that while global equities markets took a huge hit in the last trading session because of the comments from US Fed chairman Jerome Powell, the stock market index ended higher.

“Our market massively outperformed the rest of its Asian peers. It could be due to the fact that manufacturing PMI data came in today with the Philippines’ new order growth at a six-month high. Most of the large-cap blue chips ended higher today and only the services sector was down,” he said.

Despite the beginning of the “ghost month,” the market was able to close above its 50-day moving average after Wednesday’s scare which means there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.

“However, we are not out of the woods yet. There doesn’t seem to be any conviction from investors, and with the beginning of the “ghost month” the sentiment may get weaker than it already is,” Mangun said.