Philippine bourse tumbles on negative news overseas

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine stock market pulled back from its first close above the 7,700 mark following the flat performance of the US equities and the negative news cycle in Europe.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dipped by 0.54 percent or 41.82 points to 7,674.24, while the broader all- share index tumbled by 0.23 percent or 10.29 points to 4,470.99.

Trading volume reached 1.19 billion shares worth P10.09 billion ($228.72 million) with 94 stocks declining, 87 advancing, and 38 were unchanged.

Two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were the services and the mining and oil sectors.

"The PSEi fell off the opening bell and never looked back despite an early attempt from the bulls to limit the losses. A late pick up towards the close sheared a portion of the loss," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Overseas, members of the European Union have become increasingly apprehensive over the new leadership's commitment to its predecessor's pledges in the bail-out-funds-for-austerity scheme.

On Wednesday, Greek's new Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, met with its European partners to discuss possible solutions to its bailout concerns, which include writing off its debts and renegotiating a new one while suspending some of the austerity provisions.

Aside from the Philippines and except for the Australian, New Zealand and Chinese stocks, the wide region is mostly in the red driven by a fall in oil prices, snapping a four-session rally as supplies rose.

"The index has now dropped in five of the last six days. It is up for earnings and a couple of economic data in the coming days to provide some impetus to trades either way," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Investors sold down SM Investments Corp., Energy Development Corp., and Ayala Corp.