Phl stocks dive today on US Fed announcement

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Selling continues today as investors remain apprehensive of the latest announcement of the US Federal Reserves.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 2.28 percent, or 144.50 points, to 6,182.17, while the broader all-share index shed 2.52 percent or 98.64 points to 3,821.01.

Trading volume reached 3.41 billion shares worth P12.96 billion ($296.04 million) with 141 stocks declining, 31 advancing, and 23 were unchanged.

All six counters were down, led by the mining and oil sector, which suffered a huge drop of more than 9 percent as copper, gold and oil prices fell.

"The composite index tumbled again today, lagging the most among the Asian markets as foreign selling of Philippine shares continued," brokerage DBP-Daiwa Securities, Inc. said.

On Thursday, the local equities, along with the rest of the equities, suffered a huge blow after the US Federal Reserves announced that while it is keeping its stimulus program intact, it is already considering the possibility of stepping on the brakes.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said this development had mostly kept investors away from the stock market even if the future of the local economy remains promising.

"It is a fact that the market has taken back a huge portion of the gains made over the previous five months, but the foundations upon which that was built and the underlying assumptions of the projections that lent support and legitimacy to the share price advance have remained substantially the same," Calaycay said.

Despite the drop of the local equities below the 6,100 level during the early part of the session, the analyst said the selling would have to stop, given a strong Philippine economy.

"We cannot just brush aside a 7.8 percent first quarter gross domestic product and stable consumer prices in favor of an exclusive attention to what the Federal Reserve is doing. Again, the still sound macro-economic backdrop, the steady numbers posted by listed firms in the first quarter among others should (keep investors within the bay)," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly down. Slamming the bourse down were losers Semirara Mining Corp., Philex Mining Corp., and Robinsons Land, Corp.