PSEi continues uptick, bucks huge Dow drop

The bellwether 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index on Thursday rose 38.52 points or 0.90 percent to 4,324.98 while the all shares jumped 23.77 points or 0.80 percent to 3,025.26. Market breadth, however, was negative with 71 losers against 63 gainers and 38 other stocks that closed unchanged as investors continued to look for both local and overseas leads regarding the market's direction. A dealer said the rally in power, telco and mining saved the main index from falling into the bear’s territory. “Share prices tumbled in the early goings, dragged by the Dow's biggest drop since February. A sharp rally by power, telco and mining shares pulled a ‘welcome surprise’, restoring the index into positive territory, defying trends across the Asia Pacific region," said trader Justino Calaycay Jr. of Accord Capital Equities. Four - Mining & Oil, Holding Firms, Industrial and Financials - of the six sectoral indices ended in the green. Volume traded reached 3.34 billion stocks valued at P4.53 billion. "The earnings season begins to fade into the background. Even at its height, reported numbers have failed to elicit sufficient interest to create volatility to draw in 'hot' local money. The market is thus left searching for hints from the domestic front, while it struggles to discount events abroad into local equity prices," said Calaycay in a market note. Overnight, Wall Street suffered a huge drop following the release of latest data, showing that economic recovery in the US is slowing. Wall Street's worst session since August last year also kept Asian markets nervous. Nearly all bourses in the region were trading significantly lower with Australia's All Ordinaries sliding by over two percent, while Japan's Nikkei, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Seoul Composite were declining by over one percent each. In the local bourse, three of the day's five most active stocks posted gains. Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. climbed P0.30 or 0.26 percent to P114.30. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. surged P0.05 or 5.55 percent to P0.95. Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. slid P28 or 1.16 percent to P2,376. Holding firm Alliance Global Group Inc. dropped P0.30 or 2.81 percent to P10.38. Power distributor Manila Electric Co. soared P18.80 or 7.52 percent to P268.80.-- CMA/OMG, GMA News