THE RANKS OF INVESTORS

10:20 Wednesday 18 November 2009 Philippine Stock Exchange Index 3052.61 (+0.68%) I just checked out how the market did today and it looks like PX is again on the road to higher prices. Mining stocks are just so much in fashion among international investors that one cannot be very objective on PX. PX is unique among Philippine mining stocks because it is very profitable, it has a long history of making money for its shareholders, it is the most credible mining stock in the PSE. I’m not denigrating the other mining stocks but none can stand at close ranks with PX and show as much luster. Anyway, I had a good day out of the office swinging away in Sta. Elena at the I-Remit Annual Golf Cup. Funny how you don’t miss the market when you’re playing golf. Nevertheless, I tried to catch up on the developments by looking at some charts and phoning one fund manager, and it looks like some of the banks are once again in the buy list of investors notably MBT, PNB and SECB. I can’t complain about this sentiment because I’ve been long banking shares for the last 3 months and my patience is paying off. I must admit, we are seeing some profit taking going on among local institutions. The rationale is that these firms have to report to their clients and they would like to bank in their gains because cash always looks better than paper profits. We are just coming to that time in the year when fund managers have to queue up to the various retirement and provident funds to do their song and dance numbers. In the local scene, I am going to assume that the institutional investors are going to turn very conservative soon. That means we’ll be seeing further top slicing of portfolios implying that any steep upswing is not likely to happen. We’ll be seeing a few special situations which make look quite compelling. I did mention EEI a while back. I’ll keep reminding readers just to make sure they remember me when the stock reaches 4 pesos. I also believe that stocks which represents a good portion of the Philippine play will remain buoyant because as the year ends, some foreign funds that have to show a Philippine weighting in their portfolio will be picking up some TEL and AC. Anyway, it’s been a long day for me from golfing in the morning to mid afternoon, then speaking at an investors forum late in the afternoon until early evening. My only encouragement is that a few more people with a good deal of money are being added to the ranks of local stock market investors. http://guscosio.wordpress.com