MANILA, 30 December — The optimism of the business community in the Philippine business community is being reflected in the local stock market which ended trading for the year on a positive note.
The stock market is also looking forward to 2002 with high hopes. So the composite index on the local market rose 22.11 points or 1.93 percent to 1,168.08 points on the last trading week of 2001, a week shortened by two days of official holidays.
Value turnover shot up 109.59 percent as trading more than doubled the previous week’s exchange. Buying and selling amounted to 4.04 billion pesos ($80.8 million) although actual trades were less by 14 percent at 1.44 billion shares.
Still, Filipino traders were all hoping for a better year ahead after a tumultuous political transition and economic woes aggravated by a global slowdown. Some analysts believed that the market’s improvement was due largely to "window dressing" but the others were convinced it was because of expectations of a better year ahead. Window dressing refers to a practice of corporations and investment funds bid stock prices up so their stock holdings will show profits as they close their books for the year. "It was largely window dressing that boosted the market. It’s the last trading day of the year, so it’s the last opportunity for investors to bid up prices," said BPI Securities assistant vice president Spencer Yap. This was surprising because the market started out the week on a flat note, with trading extremely listless and only a few players bothering to participate in the first post-Christmas session.