Philippine stocks rebound

MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks firmed up on Tuesday after the previous day’s bloodbath while many investors remained on the sidelines due to eurozone concerns.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index recouped 35.47 points, or 0.73 percent, to 4,925.67. Only the services counter remained in the red.

Value turnover for the day was thin at about P4 billion. There were 89 advancers that edged out 72 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.

April Lee-Tan, head of research at the COL Financial, said the market would remain wary of the upcoming elections in Greece, which in turn would determine whether the state would accept painful austerity measures or not.

She said the risk of debt default would be higher, if Greece left the eurozone, in turn escalating fiscal contagion woes that have hounded the markets since 2011.

For the local index, she said 4,770 appeared as a strong support level. She said it appeared that the index would indeed consolidate below 5,000.

“Over the long term we remain positive. We just need clarity as far as EU is concerned,” Lee-Tan said, adding that the strong Philippine economic growth number in the first quarter was proof that the country was resilient.

The local index was led higher by SMIC, AGI, BDO, DMCI, Metrobank, AC, ALI, BPI, URC, Meralco and First Gen.  Likewise among the day’s gainers were Phinma (+13.73 percent).

On the other hand, the PSEi’s gains were tempered by the decline of the PLDT, Megaworld, AP and MPI.

Newly listed Calata fell by a hefty 46.22 percent as over-excitement on the stock waned, dealers said.