LOCAL STOCKS slumped 2.4 percent on Monday to post its worst performance in more than five months as a weak global investor sentiment, aggravated by escalating domestic fundamental concerns, triggered a massive selldown of blue chips.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 69.98 points to close at a three-month low of 2,883.21 after breaching a key support level at 2,900.

In terms of percentage drop, it was also the worst daily bloodbath seen by the index since Aug. 17 last year when it plunged by 2.77 percent.

Despite many stocks hitting oversold levels, a wave of foreign selling overwhelmed modest bottom-picking. More investors scrambled to unload stocks, pushing up the value turnover to P9.3 billion or about thrice the normal daily volume. Dealers said investors may be in a hurry to cut losses and were in no mood yet to scout for bargains.

The selldown in the local stock market was broad-based, leaving 103 decliners as against only 15 advancers and 40 unchanged stocks.

Dumped yesterday were Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Ayala Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands, SM Investments Corp., Energy Development Corp., Jollibee Foods Corp., Manila Electric Co., and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

The local slump developed as US stocks last week plummeted for a third week in a row while aversion to emerging market assets escalated globally due to reports on the deteriorating finances of the Greek government.

?The Dow [Jones index] was down Friday and most indicators domestically don?t really point to anything promising. The data are not encouraging, to say the least,? said Justino Calaycay, a dealer at Accord Capital Equities Corp.

But he said the drop came as a surprise as the index was widely believed to be ripe for a technical rebound.

Calaycay said the market must have been spooked by a string of domestic uncertainties such as an uptick in inflation, the government?s budget deficit and the central bank?s unwinding of an accommodative monetary policy, which may curb risk-taking.

?Domestically, investors are still apprehensive on how soon our economy will pick up. At the rate things are going, the budget deficit is a real threat. Spending will be high because of the elections and Congress doesn?t seem to be keen on enacting additional revenue measures,? Calaycay said.

As the government could not rely on privatization measures, Calaycay said the market was looking for a sustainable revenue-raising program.

?Meanwhile, on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas? exit [from a relaxed monetary policy], I think right now the market is saying that if we?re pulling out the stimulus at this time, it might be too early too soon, although this is being done across the world,? Calaycay said.