PLDT's good news shield PSE from Wall St. fallout

MANILA, Philippines - An improvement in the full-year core earnings of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. shielded the market from a deep decline after Wall Street’s sharp overnight losses, analysts said. The main 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index climbed 3.55 points or 0.1912 percent to 1,859.98. The all shares rose 1.20 points or 0.0997 percent to 1,205.24. Market breadth, however, was negative. Losers outpaced gainers, 50 to 31, while 49 stocks were unchanged. The six sectors were split in half, with financials, industrial, and services closing higher between 0.3462 percent and 0.5789 percent. The three other sub-indices – Holding Firms, Property, and Mining and Oil – closed in the red, retreating between 0.1737 percent and 2.9909 percent. Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 300 points, touching a 12-year low, as fresh worries over American International Group’s huge $62 billion loss for the fourth quarter. "We didn't follow the US market because market leader PLDT reported better core earnings," said Peter Raymond Lee, IGC Securities analyst. PLDT accounts 30 percent of the PSE's composite index. Lopez holding firm First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC), which controls electricity distributor Manila Electric Co., also helped lift the market, said Lee. Unknown parties have been snapping up stocks of Meralco in what is believed a proxy war between the Lopez family and conglomerate San Miguel Corp., which owns nearly 40 percent of Meralco. Meralco, the day's top-traded, jumped P0.50 or 0.5587 percent to P90. PLDT leaped P10 or 0.4598 percent to P2,185. FPHC surged P3 or 13.3333 percent to P25.50. Geothermal power producer PNOC-Energy Development Corp. was flat at P2.60. PLDT subsidiary Pilipino Telephone Corp. soared P0.60 or 8.8235 percent to P7.40. - GMANews.TV