PHL stocks ride on election momentum, open higher into uncharted 7,000 level

Philippine shares opened strong Wednesday, soaring higher into the uncharted territory beyond 7,000 on the main PSEi, lifted by the euphoric momentum that evolved Tuesday from results of the mid-term elections Monday in which administration candidates garnered an overwhelming majority of the elective posts. "The local market opened higher today, a continuation of the momentum yesterday," Freya Natividad, investment analyst at 2TradeAsia.com, told GMA News Online. The benchmark PSEi soared 55.53 points or 0,76 percent to 7,368.99 as of 10:41 a.m., following Tuesday's 30th  all-time high close. Investors were positioning ahead of the official results of 2013 elections and expectations of continued monetary easing in Asia, Natividad noted. "Also, earlier in the week, it was expected that the regional central bank would relax key monetary policies which will keep markets afloat as more funds are expected to come in and liquidity is expected to be higher," Natividad added. Meanwhile, the "generally peaceful mid-term polls" which almost guarantees the administration slate a majority of the 12 Senate seats up for grabs lends promise to the administration's reform initiatives, Justino B. Calaycay Jr., analyst at Accord Capital Equities Corp., said in his daily market report. "With the results more or less in tangent with expectations, the country can now move forward with the government in effect earning a fresh mandate," Calaycay added. — VS, GMA News