Philippine stock market falters once more

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock market ended a three-day upswing on Thursday as concerns that the European fiscal crisis would turn for the worse spooked global markets anew.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index faltered by 61.14 points or 1.41 percent to finish at 4,285.06, ending a three-day run-up.

Overnight, Wall Street saw its worst dive in three months, with the Dow Jones Industrial Index sliding by 389.24 points or 3.2 percent to 11,780.94 amid reports that drastic measures such as the creation of a smaller euro zone were now being discussed by German and French officials. Risk premium on Italy’s bonds widened to the highest level since the euro was introduced in 1999.

At the local market, the decline was led by the holding firms, industrial and property counters, which  slumped by 2.2 percent, 1.78 percent and 1.52 percent, respectively. Only the services sub-index narrowly avoided ending in the red.

Turnover at the local bourse amounted to P4.9 billion. There were 49 advancers which were overwhelmed by 96 decliners while 30 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led lower by SMIC, SMC, BDO, Metrobank, ALI, AP, AGI, MPIC, JFC, BPI, SM Prime, AEV and Semirara. Security Bank also traded in the red.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s decline was tempered by the gains of PLDT, ICTSI and Belle.

PLDT’s wireless unit Smart Communications is set to Apple products in the country starting with iPhone 4S as Apple’s exclusive distribution with Globe lapsed.

ICTSI, for its part, reported a 39 percent growth in nine-month net profits to $101.4 million.

Digitel, Puregold and LR also bucked the day’s downturn.

The consolidation of Digitel into PLDT has recently been approved by regulators.