Philippines share prices closed 0.6 percent lower on Tuesday on continued profit-taking, dealers said. They said the day's turnover was light compared to previous sessions, suggesting that most fund managers had already left the market ahead of the Christmas holidays. The Philippine Stock Exchange composite index fell 10.8 points to 1,775.45 after trading between 1,772.81 and 1,787.79.
Volume turnover totalled 615.8 million shares worth 584.27 million pesos (10.3 million dollars) from 1.02 billion shares worth 689.86 million pesos on Monday.
The broader all-shares index gained 1.33 points to 1,144.30.
Losers beat gainers 38 to 33, with 41 stocks unchanged.
"Trading was very light, since almost everyone is out of the market ahead of the holidays," said Mark Alan Canizares of Citiseconline.com.
Given the sluggish trade, the market could go either way during the remaining trading days of 2004, he said. "The possibility for a rally is still there, but it depends on who stays and trades," Canizares added.
BPI Securities Inc said in an advisory that threats made by the al Qaeda terror network to disrupt oil supplies in the Middle East also weighed on sentiment.
"The market is also tentative, given the long holiday break ahead. Investors are most likely to stay sidelined until such time there is more positive news that would help build up confidence in the market," it said. BPI Securities placed the market's support at 1,748 and resistance at 1,807.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone was the most actively traded stock, closing flat at 1,280 pesos. Bank of the Philippine Islands was unchanged at 51.50 pesos.
First Philippine Holdings gained 50 centavos to 30.50 pesos, while Ayala Land closed unchanged at 6.90 pesos.
However, parent company Ayala Corp fell 20 centavos to 6.50.
San Miguel saw its B shares, open to foreigners, fall 50 centavos to 75 pesos while its A shares were unchanged at 57.50 pesos.
Comments
Comments are closed.