Philippines share prices closed flat Wednesday as investors took a breather after the benchmark index hits its highest level in more than six years on Tuesday, dealers said.
Gains in Ayala Corp and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) offset profit-taking in select counters, but many investors were on the sidelines awaiting fresh leads, they said. The composite index ended down 1.01 points at 2,184.70 after moving between 2,173.44 and 2,187.49.
Volume reached 797.7 million shares worth 972.7 million pesos (19 million dollars). Gainers led losers 49 to 40, with 63 stocks unchanged.
The Philippine peso traded at 51.19 to the dollar as of mid-day. "There were bouts of profit-taking earlier in the session but the market is convinced the uptrend is very much intact after the technical breakout yesterday," said Nestor Aguila of DA Market Securities.
The market broke through the 2,160-2,170 range on Tuesday, considered a major resistance level, triggering aggressive buying that brought the key index to its best level since August 1999.
Ayala Corp, the most actively traded stock, rose 2.50 pesos to 352.50 while PLDT was up five pesos at 1,870 pesos. Electricity producer First Gen Corp fell one peso to 41 pesos while oil refiner Petron Corp was down five centavos at 4.55 pesos.
Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp saw its A shares, restricted to Filipinos, remain steady at 60.50 pesos while its B shares, open to foreigners, advanced 50 centavos to 81 pesos.