Stocks end down on continued profit taking

The main stock index ended in the red for the fourth consecutive day as worries about Europe’s debt crisis, signs of weak global growth and expectations of lower US corporate earnings sent most investors on a selling spree.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 25.3 points (0.47 percent) to finish at 5,369.60. The broader All Shares index fell 8.68 points (0.24 percent) to 3,558.58

Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering winners, 84 to 66, while, 56 issues were unchanged.

Around Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index tumbled 173.36 points to 8,596.23, after hitting a two-month intraday low of 8,596.02.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 17.68 points to 20,919.60. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.4 percent at 1,955.84. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.3 percent to 4,493.20.

However, markets in mainland China edged up a day after posting big gains on hopes that Chinese authorities were preparing sizeable steps to help reverse the decline in growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

“Investors expect that probably the central government will announce stimulus measures very soon, so I think that supports the China market,” said Lee Kok Joo, head of research at Phillip Securities in Singapore.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1 percent to 2,117.65 while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.7 percent to 878.10.

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that Spain’s economy Ð already in double- dip recession Ð will contract by 1.3 percent next year, more than double its previous prediction.

Spain, with near 25-percent unemployment, has introduced a series of austerity and labor measures in a desperate bid to bring down its deficit and convince investors it can manage its finances without outside help.

“Spain remains the major focal point and in this regard there is no progress in the country moving forward with a bailout request,” analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in a market commentary.