Friday, August 3, 2007

Real Score

Earlier today, Bart rang me up on my mobile, asking for advice over his FLI shares.

"Should I cut my losses and sell it now,?" He asked me. Bart bought the shares at its highest price so far, I even chided him for not consulting me first before placing his order. And now, share prices seemed to be nosediving on account of investor fears due to the sub-prime mortgage debacle in the US.

"It will still go up, but maybe you should consider a longer investment horizon, like the medium-term. As it is, you bought the stock at the worst possible time."

It's true, I remain optimistic on the local real estate. Interest rates remain low (it did rise, benchmark 90-day T-bill rates are above 3%), OFW funds keep the housing market bouyant, peso's strength mitigates rises in material and fuel costs, and most importantly, consumer spending and corporate profits do not show any signs of a slow-down. Even in the US, the fall-out on account of the sub-prime mortgage market exploding has not really extended its tentacles towards the prime market.

So equity jitters are all sentiment-led, and will likely reverse itself when the stronger fundamentals bear out the real picture, at least for now.

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