DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Roundup: Philippine stocks rebound on bargain hunting by Kristine Liu” plus 9 more

MANILA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Bargain hunting managed to lift the Philippine stock market on Wednesday although most investors remain apprehensive of the local equities.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 0.28 percent or 12.13 points to 4,315.21. The all-share index rose by 12.63 points, or 0.42 percent, to 3,041.48.

Trading volume reached 6.87 billion shares worth 5.46 billion pesos (129.38 million U.S. dollars).

There were 78 gainers, 75 losers while 28 stocks closed flat.

Except for the mining and oil sector, all six counters closed higher, led by the service sector which was up by 1.47 percent.

The mining sector declined after main mover Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. further retreated. Its A shares dived 11.3 percent, while its B shares lost 9.3 percent.

Likewise, prices of gold also declined by 1.76 percent.

Commenting on the local equities' marginal rally, brokerage AB Capital Securities, Inc. said most Asian markets rebounded on Wednesday after experiencing a three-day sell-off that resulted in pushing stock prices to bargain levels.

"The latest domestic inflation data also provided some relief for market players, who have already been fretting about a slowing local economy," AB Capital Securities said.

Philippine inflation in August slowed to 4.7 percent on lower prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said Tuesday.

However, investors' indecisiveness remains prevalent. The local composite index soared by as much as 28.38 points before cautious traders decided to take profits.

AB Capital Securities said while domestic fundamentals remain strong, there are just too many external distractions.

"For now, the trading range we see is between 4,300 to 4,400. We just have to wait for a catalyst that will help the local index break out from the tight range," the brokerage said.

Most stocks in the 30-company index closed higher. Among the most actively traded issues were heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., and the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

BASTROP, United States, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from raging wildfires in drought-stricken Texas rose to four on Tuesday, after two bodies were found in Bastrop county, officials said.

The bodies were discovered in charred wreckage from an unchecked wildfire in the county near Texas' capital city of Austin.

"This is what we don't like to see," Bastrop county judge Ronnie McDonald said while announcing the new fatalities at a press conference.

On Sunday, another fire in eastern Texas killed a mother and her 18-month-old child when flames devoured their mobile home.

The blaze, which started around 2 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Sunday northeast of Bastrop county, about 50 km (30 miles) from Austin, has scorched 33,089 acres of Bastrop county land and destroyed 550 homes, emptying 20 neighborhoods and forcing about 5,000 people to leave their homes, officials said.

More than 250 firefighters from around the country have come to Bastrop to help. They have made some progress, but have not put the fire under control, local officials said.

Dry air, high winds from Tropical Storm Lee and drought conditions that prevail in Texas have made fighting the fire extremely difficult, according to media reports.

At the Bastrop Convention and Exhibit Center, which is turned into a command center for the county's fire fighting, people who were evacuated gathered to share information and tried to find out how their homes were.

Elizabeth Jarnagin, owner of an online bookshop, said when she first saw the black cloud over the sky, she thought it was a rain cloud that could bring rain to the drought-plagued county. But later, she found it was smoke from the fire. The fire is one of the worst in the county, she said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who left the presidential campaign trail Monday in South Carolina to return to Texas to monitor the fire, said Tuesday that the number of homes destroyed by wildfires since the fire season began last December had surpassed 1,000 statewide. Some 3.5 million acres of Texas land have burned.

The Texas Forest Service reportedly responded to more than 60 new fires over the weekend that scorched nearly 33,000 acres of land. The Bastrop fire is the largest of them.

JAKARTA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government on Wednesday were urged to stop trade on orangutan skulls at souvenir shops at Kalimantan Island, a press statement said here.

The Centre for Orangutan Protection, an environment activists group, also urged palm plantation companies to help the government in achieving the goal.

"We recommend the Natural Resources Conservation Agency under the Forestry Ministry to be pro-active in conducting law enforcement operation in souvenir shops that sell products made of wild animal bones," said the statement.

It also said that palm plantation companies should build and operate appropriate security system in their concession lands.   "The companies should also help apparatus from the Natural Resources Conservation Agency to arrest their employees who are proved of killing orangutan," it said.

The environment activist group pointed facts that trade on orangutan skulls still exists in souvenir shops in Pontianak, the provincial capital city of West Kalimantan province, Palangkaraya of Central Kalimantan and Balikpapan of East Kalimantan.

It said that the trade could be stopped immediately if souvenir traders who are proved to sell orangutan skulls are arrested and there would be no buyer to purchase them from people or palm plantation employees.

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's top quality regulator on Wednesday reported six kinds of substandard mooncakes following examinations on nearly 300 different products just days before annual Mid-Autumn Festival begins.

High bacterial content was found in mooncakes produced by several companies, including Lanzhou Tianshengyuan and Changchun Jiangbo Food Company, the regulator said.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said that a total of 13 state-level food-testing organizations had checked 299 kinds of mooncakes produced by 289 companies in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in recent weeks.

Test results show that 293 kinds of mooncakes met established quality standards. The mooncakes were examined according to quality indicators such as chemical composition, hygiene standards, food additives, packaging, ingredients and bacterial counts, the watchdog said.

It also required local bureaus to take necessary measures to solve the problems and ordered the companies involved to correct their mistakes.

Meanwhile, the companies will receive follow-up examinations.

Mooncakes are Chinese delicacies traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival when families and friends gather together to light lanterns, eat mooncakes and appreciate the full moon.

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the 15th day of the 8th month is the exact middle of autumn and, on this night, the moon appears at its roundest and largest.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Sept. 12.

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhen Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange added 549.1 points, or 2.16 percent, on Wednesday to close at 11,011.18.

A Share Index: 12,074.20 points, up 255.22 points, or 2.16 percent;

B Share Index: 4,857.20 points, up 79.32 points, or 1.66 percent;

Total Turnover: 25.98 billion yuan (4.07 billion U.S. dollars).

ABUJA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS) on Tuesday said it had uncovered a bomb factory operated by the violent Islamic sect Boko Haram in central north Niger State.

The service said the factory was where Boko Haram members manufactured the improvised explosive devices used to carry out bomb attacks.

The service's spokesperson Marilyn Ogar conducted reporters round the factory sited in a nondescript one-storey building in an impoverished part of the state.

Ogar said the SSS had arrested five members of the violent Islamic sect, suspected of organizing the bombing of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office and the All Christian Fellowship Church, in Suleja, Niger State.

The INEC office was bombed on April 8, while the church was attacked on July 10.

The spokesperson added that the suspects had all confessed to be members of the sect in the Suleja-Abuja axis under the direction and control of a blood-thirsty Boko Haram leader who is at large.

Ogar did not name the said Boko Haram leader.

Boko Haram commenced a bombing campaign against the government in 2007 in pursuit of its demand for the establishment of Islamic Sharia law in the country.

The group had claimed responsibility for the June 16 bombing of the Nigerian Police headquarters building in Abuja as well as the Aug. 26 attack on the United Nations building.

LOME, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A sensitization workshop to discuss corruption and continuation of reforms in the procurement procedures within the regional block of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) will be held in Lome on Sept. 13-16.

Workshop organizers that the forum will bring together public and private sector players, journalists, civil society players as well as parliamentarians. The reform of the procurement procedures within UEMOA region was one of the directives that were adopted by the council of ministers in 2005.

This directive will lead to the creation of a regional Procurement Regulatory Authority (RCMP) which will promote transparency and efficiency in the management of public finances.

The measure intends to modernize and harmonize the public procurement systems within UEMOA member states.

The Regional Procurement Observatory (ORMP) is already functional and a regional procurement website is in its final phase of completion.

The reforms have also reinforced institutional and human capacities and led to acquisition of technological equipment as well as the training of about 4,025 individuals on procurement.

This forum will be organized by the UEMOA Commission through its Procurement Management Unit in collaboration with the Togolese Public Procurement Authority (ARMP) and Synergy, the communication agency in charge of the media campaign.

KABUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A bomb planted by militants in Logar province, 60 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, went off and injured seven people including four civilians on Wednesday, spokesman for provincial administration Deen Mohammad Darvish said.

"The anti-government militants planed an explosive device in provincial capital Pul-e-Alam and remotely detonated it this morning as a result seven persons including four innocent civilians and three personnel of law enforcing bodies were injured, " Darvish told Xinhua.

He also added the blast took place while personnel of security forces including army and police were on routine patrol.

Militancy has been rampant since May this year when Taliban militants announced to launch spring offensive in the war-battered Afghanistan.

SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korean shares ended 3.78 percent higher on Wednesday as program-linked buying grew sharply one day ahead of the expiration of futures and options, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 66.75 points, or 3.78 percent, to close at 1,833.46. Trading volume stood at 412.4 million shares worth 6.06 trillion won (5.66 billion U.S. dollars).

The KOSPI started 2.54 higher and continued its earlier gains throughout the session on technical rebound from the recent sharp falls even after the U.S. stocks ended bearish overnight.

The U.S. benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 300 points in New York at one time overnight on news that the eurozone economy showed poor growth in the second quarter, but pared its earlier losses on positive data of the service industry.

The average economic growth of the eurozone 17 member countries came in at 0.2 percent on-quarter in the second quarter, down from the 0.8 percent on-quarter expansion three months earlier. German economic growth stood at 0.1 percent during the April-June period, down from the 1.3 percent growth in the first quarter, with the French economic growth declining from 0.9 percent to zero over the cited period.

However, local stocks rebounded technically on views that the recent sharp declines were excessive along with hefty buying via program-linked transactions one day ahead of the simultaneous expiry of stock futures and options.

"Program-linked buying led the market rally. Their buying centered on large-cap shares as program transactions track the KOSPI index," Lee Jae-man, an analyst at Dongyang Securities in Seoul, told Xinhua.

Lee noted tech and petrochemical shares, which led the recent sharp falls, rose steeper than defensive shares such as telecommunication shares, but warned that investors should remain cautious as foreign investors continued to sell local shares.

Institutional investors led the market jump by purchasing a net 331.6 billion won worth of shares, but offshore investors kept its selling streak for fourth straight sessions by offloading 328.6 billion won worth of local stocks. Retail investors turned to net sellers in four trading days by selling a net 134.9 billion won worth of shares.

Arbitrage program transactions were net buyers, but non- arbitrage trading ended up net selling, sending the total net buying amount of program-linked transactions to 97.2 billion won.

Tech shares gained ground on strong demand for bargain-hunting. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics soared 6.33 percent to 773, 000 won, and its local rival LG Electronics surged 9.14 percent to end at 64,500 won. Memory chip giant Hynix Semiconductor skyrocketed 14.71 percent to 19,500 won, and flat screen maker LG Display climbed 8.33 percent to 19,500 won.

Top crude oil refiner SK Innovation surged 7.56 percent to close at 156,600 won, and leading chemical firm LG Chem gained 4. 26 percent to 343,000 won.

The local currency finished at 1,071.8 won against the greenback, up 3.1 won from Tuesday's close.

Bond prices ended lower. The yield on the liquid three-year treasury notes jumped 0.1 percentage point to 3.45 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds gained 0.08 percentage point to 3.53 percent.

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's stocks rebounded and closed higher on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 1.84 percent, or 45.57 points, to end at 2,516.09.      The Shenzhen Component Index increased 2.16 percent, or 232.75 points, to finish at 11,011.18.