Bourse skids for 5th straight day

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - It was a bloody week for the Philippine stock market which again closed today's session in the negative.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dipped by 0.62 percent, or 38.05 points, to 6,084.84, while the broader all-share index declined by 0.52 percent, or 19.55 points, to 3,717.63.

Trading volume reached 595.05 million shares worth P7.43 billion ($169.69 million) with 95 stocks declining, 64 advancing, and 38 were unchanged.

All six counters were down.

The rally in the Dow Jones industrial average index failed to inspire investors who were worried that the United States Federal Reserves might start tapering its economic stimulus.

The U.S. equities shot up 109.17 points to close for the first time at 16,009.99 over reports of an improving labor market.

While this is a welcomed development for global economy, analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. had already warned about investors' fear of the U.S. easing its economic stimulus, despite comments from outgoing Federal Reserve Chairperson Ben Bernake that interest rates will remain near zero even after the economy peels off the QE3 stimulus.

Apprehension among investors caused the local index to lose as much as 4.12 percent this week.

"Markets will be listening closely for hints on QE3 moving forward," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed in the negative. These issues include heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., SM Investments Corp., and Alliance Global Group, Inc..