Philippines share prices closed 0.2 percent lower on Friday as jitters after an interest rate hike offset gains due to a plunge in crude oil prices, dealers said. The composite index shed 4.10 points to 2,389.52. The all-share index gained 0.95 points to 1,516.83.
Forty issues advanced, 41 declined and 50 were unchanged. Turnover rose to 2.0 billion pesos (45 million dollars) from 1.782 billion pesos on Thursday. "The stock market traded on three main developments - the fall in oil futures, the rise on Wall Street and the central bank's rate increase," Ron Rodrigo of DBP Daiwa Securities told Dow Jones Newswires.
Top-traded Ayala Land was off 3.4 percent to 8.50 pesos, while Metropolitan Bank was down 3.2 percent to 30.50 pesos. The Bank of the Philippine Islands shed 2.6 percent to 38 pesos as high interest rates were expected to hurt loan demand and property sales.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone ended up 0.4 percent at 2,405 pesos after a 0.9 percent rise in its American Depository Receipts on Wall Street on Thursday. San Miguel A and B shares were both unchanged at 40 and 41 pesos respectively.