Philippines share prices closed 1.42 percent lower on Thursday as investors booked profits on blue chips after recent sharp gains, dealers said. They said the market stayed in negative territory throughout the entire session, reflecting the lack of fresh positive leads that would help push the key index past the 2,850 resistance level.
The composite index gave up 40.67 points and closed at 2,814.56, after moving between 2,801.14 and 2,855.23. The broader all-share index fell 13.27 points to 1,753.94. Losers and gainers were even at 53, while 65 stocks ended unchanged. Volume was 4.3 billion shares worth 2.06 billion pesos (4.14 million dollars). The peso traded at 49.70 to the dollar.
"We saw no other reason than profit-taking because the long-term outlook is still bullish. The market was bearish on most blue chip issues but the small- to medium-caps fared better," said Jose Vistan of AB Capital Securities. He said institutional investors took to the sidelines and it was mostly retail players that chased smaller and medium capitalised issues.
Dealers said Thursday's sharp retreat meant the 2,850-point breakout level will be more difficult to hurdle. "Apparently, the next few sessions will prove to be more challenging because the market was already quite close to breaking the 2,900 psychological resistance, but it hasn't yet," said Rommel Macapagal of Westlink Global Equities.
Top-traded Philippine Long Distance Telephone, or PLDT, fell 45 pesos to 2,510. Some select property issues also took a beating with Ayala Land falling 50 centavos to 14.50 pesos, while Megaworld gave up four centavos to 2.16 pesos. Ayala Corp edged down 10 pesos to 487.50.
Trading in San Miguel shares were halted for half an hour following a newspaper report alleging the food and beverage firm bloated its revenue figures. San Miguel told the stock exchange its sales practices and financial reporting have been above board. San Miguel's A shares closed up 50 centavos to 65 pesos and its B-shares added 50 centavos to 73.50 pesos.
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