Philippines shares closed down 12.3 percent on Monday in a broad sell-off that forced a 15-minute trading halt as regional markets were hit by fears of a global recession, dealers said. The composite index lost 239.66 points to 1,713.83 after falling through the 10 percent level in the late morning, which triggered an automatic trading halt.
The fall - the biggest in one day since February 28, 2007, when the market lost 263.84-point, or 7.9 percent - was spurred by worries over the prospects of the US and Chinese economies. The index is now at its lowest level since September 20, 2004, when the main barometer of the Philippine stock market's performance ended at 1,702.21 points.
Turnover was relatively thin at 1.1 billion shares worth 1.6 billion pesos (32.2 million dollars), with 123 issues in retreat, 13 unchanged and just five managing to survive the bloodbath.
The peso traded at an average of 49.312 to the dollar in the morning after the central bank intervened, flooding the market with an estimated 100 million dollars, according to dealers, after the local unit touched a 22-month low. A sharp fall on Wall Street Friday sparked the early selling which accelerated after Banco de Oro, the country's second largest bank, reported a 1.3 billion peso loss in its July to September quarter on exposure to collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
"The market isn't acting rationally, and I suspect it is partly because of continuing fund redemption and margin calls," Joey Roxas of Eagle Equities told Dow Jones Newswires. Banco de Oro plunged 24 percent to 22.50 pesos.
Top-traded Philippine Long Distance Telephone fell 14.2 percent to 1,850 pesos. Ayala Corp dropped 11.9 percent to 200 pesos, its Ayala Land arm lost 8.6 percent to 5.30 pesos, and unit Bank of the Philippine Islands ended 10 percent down to 36 pesos. SM Prime Holdings gave up 9.7 percent to 6.50 pesos. San Miguel A shed 2.3 percent to 42 pesos, while its B shares were 4.5 percent down to 42 pesos.
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