Philippine shares tumble following meltdown in US equities

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The stock market opened the week lower following the US equities' three-digit drop.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 0.52 percent or 41.04 points to 7,820.29 on Monday, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.45 percent or 20.62 points to 4,545. 37.

Trading volume reached 2.19 billion shares worth P8.32 billion ($188.59 million) with 112 stocks declining, 69 advancing, and 47 were unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the financials bucked the trend.

"Investors faced a stiff challenge to sentiments even before the market opened as indexes in the Oceania region paced the meltdown in US stocks Friday," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market.

The Dow Jones industrial average index dived by 1.54 percent or 278.94 points on expectations that the US Federal Reserves will hike interest rates.

Monday's decline suggests some degree of apprehension investors have over the current levels of the market on one hand, while maintaining a positive over-all outlook on the other, Calaycay added.

It did not take long for investors to succumb to the regional pressures, rising a marginal 1.31 points at the open before plunging to depths of as much as 96.47 points to within the 7,750 and 7,760 support band.

This, he said, easily invited some bettors pushing the index to a small reaction rally to erase about one-third of the losses going into the final hour before trades break for lunch.

"One possible warning of an impending reversal of the bull will come in the form of an increase in speculative activity as funds look for short-term opportunities while first and second-line counters ease off their pricy state," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly down. These include Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Megaworld Corp.