Philippine bourse close lower on slump overseas

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine stock market today tracked the movement of the US equities, pulling the index down by 0.77 percent.

The local barometer Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 59.20 points to 7,630.71, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0. 54 percent or 24.24 points to 4,441.04.

Trading volume reached 2.74 billion shares worth P10.48 billion ($237.73 million) with 111 stocks declining, 76 advancing and 36 were unchanged.

All six counters were down.

"The PSEi started off defiantly, making its second break of the 7,700-mark in three days before dropping back in line with the regional trend," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

US stocks melted anew with the Dow Jones industrial average index dropping 250 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 going at almost the same pace.

Europe was likewise covered in red after the new Greek leadership indicated it will not honor the previous regime's agreements with the troika and instead sought to negotiate a fresh one.

As a result, the local equities failed to sustain its intra-day rally and posted its biggest one-day loss so far.

"The trend so far this year is undeniably bullish. The accompanying daily, year-to-date chart shows as much," Calaycay said.

He noted that the first 18 sessions of the years has drawn a clear up-trending line with immediate support levels at 7,340, 7, 290, and 7190.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly down. These include SM Investments Corp., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Ayala Corp.