By JAMES A. LOYOLA With the steep fall experienced by the market in the past week, some bargain hunting is expected this week although investors may be quick to cash in on gains — maybe even resort to day-trading. “Last week's close at 4,778.76 highlights the bears are in control,” said BDO Unibank Chief Market Strategist Jonathan Ravelas. He noted that, “With the swift break below the 5,000 levels like a hot knife through butter, hints that there is still some risks to the downside towards the 3,800 to 4,000levels in the near-term.” “However, given the steep drop (last) week, expect some bargain hunting,” Ravelas added. Online brokerage 2Tradeasia noted that, “stimulus packages, particularly those to pump-out liquidity will be appreciated, but again, with no hands to deploy said liquidity at the household level, markets will have to digest paltry earnings expectations, and favor safer havens, at least for now.” The firm said there will be investors who hunt for sectors whose cash flow models are insulated, either by operating nature (telecoms) or geography (VisMin property and retail); and there will be those who see the recent fall as an overreaction and begin accumulating the worst-hit (airlines) at their lows. Otherwise, 2Tradeasia advised investors to “ride-out intraday volatility, for quick returns, minding selling pressure on rallies.” While almost all stocks have fallen to bargain levels, Abacus Securities Corporation is favoring those that will be least affected by, or even benefit from, the enhance community quarantine imposed on Luzon. Abacus is looking favorably at retailers whose sales are seen to have surged as consumers stocked up on groceries and other essentials while they stay at home. “March has been particularly strong for supermarkets (double digit growth) and drugstores (high single digit)…,” it said adding that focus will be on Robinsons Retail, Puregold and Metro Retail, as these “companies will show robust earnings in the first quarter and any further weakness would be an opportunity to buy.” Using another yardstick — how far a stock has deviated from its 10-year price to earnings mean. Based on this, Abacus said it will prioritize buying Metrobank, Ayala Corporation, Bank of the Philippine Islands and BDO Unibank. Abacus is also looking at stocks that have “a strong chance of keeping their cash dividends stable over the next year or even increase them.” Among those that may even be able increase dividends are PLDT and Globe “due to higher data consumption during this quarantine period plus delays for Dito.” Other good dividend stocks are Manila Water, Meralco, Filinvest Land, Aboitiz Power, MRSGI, and Chinabank. Meanwhile, COL Financial has a BUY rating on AC Energy “as it is an excellent turnaround and growth story. We believe that long-term outlook would improve with the AC Energy’s plan to inject power generation assets, and given the company’s improved position to expand its renewable energy portfolio with the backing of the AC group.”