Philippines share prices closed 0.3 percent lower on Tuesday as investors cashed in their gains after an upturn during the previous trading day, dealers said. The composite index fell 6.64 points to 2,409.98. The all-share index lost 2.22 points to 1,528.74.
Turnover rose slightly to 1.455 billion pesos (32.57 million dollars) from 1.4 billion pesos on Monday. The peso traded at 44.673 to the dollar in the morning. "The market is flat because we have been up for the past days. It's just a breather. It's nothing much," said Gomer Tan of Regina Capital Development Corp.
He said "any bad news is already expected by the market." Philippine Long Distance Telephone fell 0.2 percent to 2,410 pesos. Manila Electric Co was unchanged at 52.50 pesos. Megaworld Corp was up 3.38 percent to 1.22 pesos while Ayala Land was up 1.16 percent to 8.70 pesos. San Miguel Corp saw its A shares rise 1.2 percent to 41 pesos while its B shares were unchanged at 41.50 pesos.