PHL share prices slump for 5th straight day

Burdened by the global anxiety over the debt crisis in the Eurozone, Philippine share prices found no relief and registered their fifth consecutive decline on Wednesday. The bellwether 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index stumbled 36.10 points or 0.85 percent to 4,190.98 while the all shares slumped 17.09 points or 0.58 percent to 2,943.36. Market breadth was negative; losers trounced gainers, 73 to 50, while 36 stocks closed unchanged. Save for Mining & Oil, which moved sideways, all other five sectoral indices closed in the red. Financials and Property bore the brunt of the day's bearish mood, suffering a dip of 1.55 percent and 1.31 percent, respectively. Volume traded reached 2.97 billion shares valued at about P4.52 billion. Trader Justino Calaycay Jr. of Accord Capital Equities said "negative momentum remains obvious" in the market. Overnight Tuesday, Wall Street suffered another decline as worries on the debt crisis in Europe lingers. "A good deal hinges on developments in Europe, which has moved into the forefront of investors' concerns," Calaycay said. In the region, only bourses in New Zealand and Malaysia were registering gains, while stock markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were trading at a loss of between 0.28 percent and 0.81 percent. In the local market, out of the five most active stocks for the session, four retreated. Holding firm Alliance Global Group Inc. , the day's top traded, slid P0.54 or 5.01 percent to P10.24. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. slipped P1.80 or 2.51 percent to P70.05. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. rose P0.02 or 2.5 percent to P0.82. Aboitiz Power Corp. shed P0.55 or 1.93 percent at P28. San Miguel Corp. lost P1.30 or 1.19 percent at P107.50. -- CMA/OMG, GMA News