Philippines share trading is expected to slow this week with investors sidelined by religious holidays in this largely Roman Catholic nation, analysts said Friday. "Next week is holy week," said Nestor Aguila of DA Market Securities. "We don't expect anything exciting to happen in the market during that time." For the week ending March 18, the Philippine Stock Exchange composite index fell 87.11 points, or 4.07 percent, to 2,050.28 points.
Average daily turnover fell to 1.824 billion shares worth 3.575 billion pesos (66.22 million dollars) from 2.52 billion shares worth 1.48 billion pesos in the previous week.
"I expect the market to be pretty slow because of the holy week break. I don't think a lot of people would be participating actively," said Oliver Plana of Asiasec Securities Inc.
Holidays will last from March 24 to 27, leaving only three days of trading. However, people often use the occasion to take a week-long vacation.
"Most likely we will see lighter volumes. People ahead of the holidays will be out of the market," said Mark Alan Canizares of Citiseconline.com.
He added the listing of SM Investments, the holding company of shopping mall developer Henry Sy, on Tuesday could stir the market.
"It might trigger some rebound but generally, the holy week tends to be quite slow for the market," said Canizares.
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