Stocks continue to decline

Local stocks tumbled for a second session Tuesday as Wall Street jitters arising from the Boston Marathon explosions added to global growth and local valuation concerns.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 51.44 points or 0.75 percent to close at 6,786.33. All counters were in the red but the sharpest declines were incurred by the mining/oil (-2.26 percent) and property counters (-1.22 percent).

Value turnover amounted to P8.95 billion. There were 42 advancers as against 115 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc., said the recent Boston explosions had some impact on sentiment “but it’s more of indirect effect because of the Wall Street (decline).” The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.79 percent overnight due to the Boston explosions.

At the same time, valuation concerns at the local equity markets tempted some profit-taking especially given concerns on China’s economy.

The day’s biggest index decliners were Globe (-2.95 percent), Philex (-2.94 percent) and Ayala Land (-2.25 percent) while Semirara, ICTSI, Bloomberry, Aboitiz Power, DMCI, Petron and First Gen also dragged down the index. Doris C. Dumlao