Philippine bourse still tumbles after 4-day slide

The Philippine stock market on Tuesday made a futile attempt to put an end to its four-day slide as investors remain unsure of the local equities.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 0.05 percent or 3.39 points to 7,333.45, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.18 percent or 7.45 points to 4,183.98.

Trading volume reached 1.39 billion shares worth 5.22 billion Philippine pesos (112.91 million U.S. dollars) with 103 stocks declining, 61 advancing and 42 were unchanged.

Two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were the services and the property sectors. "Bulls took control at the outset, failed to hold the gains but fought back in the final stages to trim the day's losses to a mere 3.39 points,"analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Stock market indexes across Asia were dragged by the more than 6 percent losses in Shanghai and Shenzhen despite an earlier injection by the People's Bank of China of 120 billion worth of short term loans to commercial lenders, its largest in nearly two years. "The technical view of the market leaves investors with a lot of gnawing questions on the further sustainability of the bull market run," Calaycay said.

Locally, second quarter corporate earnings failed to impress. Though some reported positive results, they were not what the market thought sufficient to boost confidence.

Moreover, the external headwinds coming from China and Greece, which is now gearing up for another EU vote on its third-bail-out, is affecting heavily investors' sentiments.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those picked up were Ayala Corp., BDO Unibank, Inc. and heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.