The Philippine stock market plunged by over 300 points Tuesday, weighed down by disappointing unemployment figures in April.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dived by 4.64 percent, or 318.95 points, to settle at 6,554.65. The broader all- share index fell by 3.92 percent, or 165.90 points, to 4,063.71.

Trading volume reached 1.94 billion shares worth 12.54 billion pesos (294.64 million U.S. dollars) with 153 stocks declining, 24 advancing, and 23 unchanged.

Not one of the six counters was spared from the bloodbath. Investors were actively selling their property issues.

Analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said the market is hungry for an improvement in economic numbers, hence making some analysts lean towards the conservative side in making their projections.

"At the moment however, we are inclined to continue wearing the shirt of caution as we wade through the ruins of the most recent scare," Calaycay said.

The unemployment rate in the Philippines rose to 7.5 percent in April as 600,000 farm workers lost their jobs owing to adverse weather conditions, according to data issued Tuesday by the National Statistics Office (NSO). This is higher than the 7.1 percent registered in January and 6.9 percent in April 2012.

In its latest Labor Force Survey, the NSO said that the number of agricultural workers fell from an estimated 12.47 million in April 2012 to 11.84 million in April 2013. The agricultural sector employs about 30 percent of the total labor force.

Officials said the huge job loss in the farm sector is due to strong typhoons that destroyed farmlands in late 2012. The Bureau of Agriculture Statistics said farmers were hesitant to plant owing to the expected onslaught of a dryspell in the coming months, reducing job opportunities for farm workers.

This has sent the local equities crashing with investors heavily selling their blue chips.

By the final bell, some of the country's biggest conglomerates like SM Investments Corp., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Ayala Corp. ended lower. Endi

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