Philippines shares lower

Philippines share prices closed 0.20 percent lower on Tuesday, pulled down by a tumble on Wall Street, dealers said. The composite index fell 5.79 points to 2,935.74 while the all-shares index fell 0.31 percent to 1,846.71. There were 49 gainers against 73 losers and 54 that were unchanged. Turnover was 1.748 billion shares worth 3.284 billion pesos (69.54 million dollars).
The local currency traded at 47.224 to the dollar. "It is more of a sideways movement," said Erwin Balita of SB Equities Inc. "The influence of the US market is part of the reason for the downturn. The Dow has been down for the past two sessions and investors are waiting for the Dow to stabilise first. Top-traded Energy Development Corp gained 2.43 percent to 4.20 pesos while SM Prime Holdings was unchanged at 10 pesos. However Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co fell 0.39 percent to 2,565 pesos while Manila Electric Co was down 4.43 percent to 194 pesos.