Stocks at the start of 2008

It's quite unfortunate for me that I bought stocks when the PSEi was still in the 3500 to 3600 marker since the stock prices were still near its peak. So now that the market is doing some side stepping, if not a nosedive, my stocks are all in the red.

Yesterday marked the lowest PSEi close at 3388.81 after several weeks (shedding 90points), which was quite expected since the DJIA shed nearly 200points prior to the Philippine market open. I tried calling my Sunlife agent to shift my funds from Bonds to Equity since I'm supposed to decide before the market closes so the buy NAV would be the closing NAV for the day. Just my luck that she was in a meeting during those critical moments when I've finally decided to make the move. The Sunlife VUL Equity NAV closed at 1.9504, the lowest for the past few weeks based on my spot checking. It would've been great for my VUL if the market would still slide today, but based on the market performance as of 11AM (Manila Time), most of the stocks have recovered some of what they've lost yesterday. Oh well -- good for my stocks, bad time for my VUL. At this rate, I'll just sit back and wait for another major slide.

I'm really tempted to buy into TEL when it drops again since I've seen it hit Php3100, so if I buy at Php2990 at the minumum boardlot amount of 10, I'd easily make Php1100 gross since I'd still have to deduct the transaction charges. Well, it would be paper gain if ever, unless I sell it to convert it to real cash balance so I could buy into other stocks. Bah-humbug.

Well, on a side note, the Sunlife VUL Equity is invested primarily in the following stocks: TEL, GLO, AC, ALI, BPI, SM, BDO, ICT, SMPH and MEG. Telecom, Property, and Banks. Not a bad portfolio if I say so myself. But as I read in a previous article, don't bother investing in stocks where your Mutual Fund is invested in already. It's like mimicking the fund manager already, and in my books, it's such a waste of time. If you're going to do that, might as well just invest all your cash in the Mutual Fund and save yourself the trouble of having to monitor the market and make calls on when to buy or sell. Funny thing is, I'm into ALI and BDO already, and I'm even thinking of buying into TEL. Maybe I'll look at other stocks then, just so I spread my portfolio. Maybe MER since they're having a price hike this 2008. Have to rethink my strategy then.

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Updates: I've decided to finally shift my fund today. Spoke to my Sunlife agent, and their Investment Manager has foreseen that the PSEi will go as low at 3250 this month, but projection is still at 4000 for end-2008. For the shifting, it won't use the closing NAV for the day that you've decided to shift it, and you have until 4PM of the current day to fax the shift request. Since I shifted today, my fund will use tomorrow's closing VUL Equity NAV. Here's to hoping that it's still below Php2.00/share.