MANILA, Philippines – After a recent bloodbath, the Philippine stock market recovered strongly yesterday, on better-than-expected second quarter economic growth figures. The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rallied 3.59 percent or 206.15 points to end at 5,944.21, bringing the main index back on the winning track for this year. It snapped a two-day decline that resulted in a 423.15-point drop for the main index en route to an eight-month low that erased year-to-date gains. PSEi closed at 5,812.73 on Dec. 28, 2012. “Sustained robust economic growth, an overnight decent rise in US equities and technically oversold market conditions lent a positive bias to Thursday’s trades,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., an analyst at Accord Capital Equities Corp. “Overseas concerns somewhat dissipated and we were greeted by good news about the economy so the market reacted favorably,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Finance Inc. Grace Cerdenia, an analyst at brokerage firm 2Trade-Asia.com, said the sizeable drop in the past few days and the strong economic growth helped the local market. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The Philippine economy expanded 7.5 percent in the second quarter, matching China’s growth and outpacing Indonesia’s 5.8 percent, Vetnam’s five percent, Malaysia’s 4.3 percent, Singapore’s 3.8 percent and Thailand’s 2.8 percent. Positive news abroad also boosted investor confidence yesterday. Wall Street also posted gains on easing worries over a potential US military strike in Syria while stocks of oil firms rallied. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.3 percent Read More …