Roundup: Philippine bourse dives on first trading day of 2016

Pessimism marred the Philippine stock market's first day of trading for 2016 as the troubles last year remained unresolved.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dived by 1.71 percent or 118.66 points to 6,833.42, while the broader all-share index declined by 1.50 percent or 59.68 points to 3,930.79.

Trading volume reached 553.88 million shares worth 2.99 billion Philippine pesos (63.46 million U.S. dollars) with 120 stocks declining, 42 advancing, and 36 were unchanged.

All six counters were down.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said an early rush of economic data from China and the stirrings of trouble in the Middle East drew mixed reactions, mainly negative for equities.

Further worsening sentiments was the dour mood after U.S. and European markets posted huge losses, ranging from -0.5 percent to over 1.0 percent, on the last day of 2015 trades.

"The Main Philippine Share Index made a brief foray into positive area when trading opened but easily gave up ground to lingering concerns -- the same issues that drove foreign funds to dump local shares, had locals on edge and snapped the PSEI's six consecutive annual winning run. By the end of the day, the index nearly doubled the losses sustained at mid- day, dropping to 6833.42 at the close," it said.

Nevertheless, online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said local equities may eventually greet the new year with an upswing as election fervor sweeps in.

Additional catalysts are budget disbursements from government, which aims for 7 percent GDP growth in the first half of the year.

Stocks in the 30-company index were mostly down. These include SM Investments Corp., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Ayala Land, Inc. Endit