Philippines stocks ended lower on Thursday, led by number two phone firm Globe Telecom Inc, as players locked in profits ahead of a long weekend for national elections on May 10.
The main index dropped 0.67 percent, or 10.44 points, to 1,551.69 points. The market is up more than seven percent this year.
Globe Telecom, jointly owned by Ayala Corp and Singapore Telecommunications, lost 2.98 percent, or 25 pesos, to 815 pesos.
It accounted for 30 percent of total trade.
B shares of Manila Electric Co (Meralco), the country's largest power distributor, dropped 1.59 percent, or 50 centavos, to 31 pesos.
"Investors are just cautious ahead of the elections," said Eagle Equities President Joey Roxas.
Value turnover rose to 803.44 million pesos from Wednesday's 539.23 million pesos.
Losers beat gainers 22 to 21 and 29 stocks were unchanged.
In addition to a president and vice president, Filipinos will elect members of congress and 17,000 other officials at all levels of government on Monday.
Analysts expect the market to keep its negative bias on Friday amid caution ahead of the elections.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has pulled further ahead of film actor Fernando Poe Jr, the latest survey by Pulse Asia shows.
Arroyo's support level rose to 37 percent, while Poe stayed put at 31 percent among the 1,800 voters polled.
"Foreigners are also selling Globe shares. I think this is just sell-on-news because Globe reported good profit growth in the first quarter."
Globe Telecom, which has a 40 percent market share of the mobile phone industry, said on Tuesday its first-quarter profit rose 51 percent to 3.1 billion pesos.
The company will hold an investor briefing at 2:30 pm on Thursday.
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