Philippines share prices closed 0.78 percent lower on Wednesday on profit-taking triggered by weak results from Philippine Long Distance Telephone and Wall Street's retreat overnight, dealers said.
They said falls were also in line with the regional performance where many markets succumbed to an early sell-off after the US Federal Reserve halted its long tightening cycle but said further interest rate hikes were possible.
The composite index ended down 18.88 points at 2,349.22. It touched a high of 2,358.98. The broader all-shares index retreated 8.27 points to 1,445.17.
Losers outnumbered gainers 43 to 40, while 58 stocks were unchanged with 1.7 billion shares traded worth 1.1 billion pesos (21.56 million dollars). The peso traded at 51.45 to the dollar.
"PLDT's earnings report is not what investors expected. It was a major surprise for most," said Accord Capital Equities analyst Lawrence de Leon. PLDT reported before the market closed yesterday that its second-quarter net profit fell 7.8 percent year-on-year to 6.73 billion pesos because of increased depreciation charges and foreign exchange losses, although its core earnings rose.
PLDT ended 70.00 pesos or 3.37 percent lower at 2,010 pesos on volume of 215,730 shares. Overnight, its American Depositary Receipts retreated 1.10 dollars or 2.69 percent to close at 39.75 dollars.
"The market's weakness was also partly due to Wall Street's decline last night. Investors feel that even if the US Federal Reserve held its rate unchanged last night, it might still raise it in the future because inflation remains a problem," de Leon said.
Central bank governor Amando Tetangco said the monetary authority will likely keep its benchmark interest rates unchanged at tomorrow's policy meeting, in view of the Fed's decision and the fall in inflation here last month to a two-year low.
Conglomerate Ayala Corp succumbed to profit-taking after recent gains which were due to its strong first-half earnings, dealers said. It ended down 7.50 pesos at 420 pesos.
Globe Telecom Inc, an Ayala unit, shed 10 pesos at 1,030. Mall operator SM Prime Holdings Inc was up 10 centavos at 8.00 pesos. San Miguel A shares were steady 65 pesos while the B shares added 50 centavos to 73.50.