March 15, 2001

For eight consecutive sessions up to today, the index has performed miserably. Within that span is a 40+ drop and today's 30+ drop. As the index breached the 1500 psychological barrier, a lot of investors must be feeling queasy with their long holdings. There's good reason too. From Japan to the US, all we hear are negative stories. Japan has been trying to stimulate its economy for a decade, while the US may be on the verge of a recession. The Dow is below 10000 and the Nasdaq is below 2000.

But it's not all that bad. My own take is that we're in a period of relative calm. I certainly believe things were a lot more uncertain last year, with standoffs just waiting to happen between opposing political figures. That being said, I would like to believe that the stock market will now be more predictable. Sure there's a drought in terms of volume, but that's really not much of an issue for us retail investors right? Let the fund managers suffer. It's our turn to thrive. ;-)

Very quickly, my personal picks are TEL at P740, ION at P11.75 and ABS at P40 for the coming week. In fact, I've already picked up ION at P11.50. Hope it doesn't dip tomorrow. By next week, if the index continues to fall, perhaps to the 1450 level, a lot of other issues would be ready for positive reversals. Take your pick. You have SMCB, MERB, AC, ALI, BPC, EBC, MPC and SMPH.