Stocks add little gains as investors remain cautious

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Yesterday's rally in the stock market spilled over to today's trade, but local investors remain cautious given the dearth of positive news.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index added 0.10 percent or 6.18 points to 5,914.59, while the broader all-share index rose by 0.36 percent or 13.06 points to 3,610.68.

Trading volume reached 1.05 billion shares worth P5.14 billion with 77 stocks advancing, 62 declining, and 44 remaining unchanged.

"U.S. and European stocks ended Wednesday flat, providing little guidance to Asian trades. However, carrying on the momentum of the previous day's rebound, indexes in Asia advanced for a second day in a row," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market review.

Investors, Calaycay said, "are wedged between the proverbial rock and a hard place." On a macro-level, everything does seem to be going well given that the Philippine economy grew only by 6.5 percent in the last quarter.

"Realistically speaking, 2014 numbers may be slower than the 7 percent pace of the quarters prior to the October-to-December period," he said.

On the micro-front, Calaycay said he expects corporate earnings of listed companies to sustain their 12 percent (broad market) and 24 percent (PSEI components) pace this year.

"Technical indicators suggest the market will continue to be in the hands of the bears in the coming days, simply because the bulls have yet to be strongly convinced of the macro's influence on share prices," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those picked up were Ayala Corp., metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., and Alliance Global Group, inc.