Local market to surge early in 2015

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MANILA – After a nine-day holiday break, the Philippine stock market resumes today on an upbeat mood.

On the first trading day of 2015, many Asian stocks increased despite the economic outlook of the US and China’s decision to incite lending.

Recently, the central bank of China revised its rules to allow deposits from non-bank financial institutions as reserves in a bid to increase growth and encourage lending.

According to First Metro Investments Corp. (FMIC), they believe that with the earnings pace of the country as of the moment, the Philippine Stock Exchange index may reach 8,000 for 2015.

“That earnings pace is going to take the PE (price to earnings) of the market lower to 19 times from the current 20 times, suggesting a target PSEi of 8200 or a 12-percent upside…But 2015 is not like any other year. It is the year when rallies start in the last semester, peaking on the election year which is 2016,” said FMIC in its report.

Meanwhile, Accord Capital Equities Inc.’s Jun Calaycay said that the 2016 elections will also affect the market.

“This early any serious aspirant to a national office (president, vice-president and senator) should already have in place a pre-campaign mechanism that will in turn build his/her 2016 official campaign network,” said Calaycay.

This, in turn, will affect stocks in media, retail, transportation, and communications.

On another note, Calaycay said that investors should be wary of the foreign trades movement as the US economic status improves.