Index tumbles 7 pts on weak peso, peace and order woes

Stocks tumbled for the fourth straight day as most investors kept their funds away from the equities market, although some took the opportunity to buy oversold issues from a technical standpoint.

Still smarting from Monday's woes -- as the market opened the week in panic over the series of fatal bomb explosions in leading malls -- the main index slid another 7.42 points or 0.52 percent to end at 1404.67, just a shade above the 1400 support which analysts expect will be breached considering the generally bearish market.

Aside from concerns over urban terrorism -- raising fears of a revival of Martial Law -- market also has to contend with domestic interest rate jitters and the falling peso. The Bangko Sentral has effectively raised its key overnight rates by 1.25 percentage points this month alone following the raise in US rates and the buildup of speculative pressure on the peso.

At the Philippine Dealing System (PDS), the peso plunged to a new low of 42.370 to the dollar on continuing concern over bombings in Manila.

The All Shares index, which measures stocks' performance outside the 30-issue Phisix, likewise softened by a mere 3.95 points to 594.93. All counters went in the red, led by the bleeding in the property and oil sectors.

The value of stock turnover that changed hands improved to P1.144 billion, from P935.29 million the pervious day. A greater number of stocks also advanced price-wise, from a paltry eight issues last Monday to 33 yesterday. In contrast, 57 issues declined while 36 were unchanged.

The market freefall was not exclusive at the local front. Wall Street and Nasdaq also lost ground for the fourth consecutive day, following the prospects of another steep interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve that seemed ready to follow-up on the 50-basis point increase last May 18. In Asia, all major markets were also weaker during the day.

Index heavyweight PLDT was the most active stock, gaining P35 to P705 despite its fall in New York, as the stock favorite ringed on technical buying. Mall operators Ayala Land and SM Prime -- the two targets in the series of bomb blasts -- moved in contrasting fashion. ALI dropped another 25 centavos to P4.15 while SM Prime advanced 10 centavos to P4.60.

Other blue chip and speculative tech stocks moved in different directions. There were accumulation in Meralco "B," PhilWeb and iVantage while SMC "B," Benpres Holdings and Metrobank were sold down.

A number of issues closed unchanged, led by BPI, SMC, BW Resources, and Canadian insurance firms Manulife and Sun Life, both of which weakened in New York.

In corporate news, Metro Pacific packaging subsidiary Steniel Manufacturing Corp. reported a consolidated net loss of P7 million during the first quarter, an important from last year's first quarter loss of P8.6 million.

MPC is the process of auctioning off several subsidiaries like Steniel, Negros Navigation and Metrovet to concentrate on real estate and property development, anchored on the Bonifacio Global City.

Philippine National Bank said it was not in a position to confirm a news report from a business daily that only two groups expressed interest in bidding for a majority 80 percent block from shares jointly owned by Lucio Tan and the government.

The report said the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. of the Yuchengco group and a US-based conglomerate led by Beatrice Foods Corp. controlled by high-profile Filipina businesswoman Loida Nicolas Lewis showed up at the pre-qualification stage set last Monday.