Philippines share prices closed 1.4 percent lower on Tuesday, but off the day's low, following the collapse of the deal for a Wall Street bailout package, dealers said. The composite index fell 37.93 points to 2,569.65 after plunging six percent at the opening.
The exchange approved a "circuit breaker" rule calling for a 15-minute halt in trading if the main index fell by 10 percent based on the previous day's close, but the market did not breach this point Tuesday. The all-shares index fell 1.58 percent to 1,622.25 points, with 24 gainers, 95 losers and 30 unchanged. Turnover reached 3.6 billion shares worth 3.033 billion pesos (64 million dollars).
"We're still in a nightmare but in today's trading, we somehow managed to bounce," Astro del Castillo of First Grade Holdings told AFP. Philippine Long Distance Telephone was unchanged at 2,685 pesos. Ayala Land was down two percent to 9.20 pesos while Megaworld was down 4.1 percent to 1.40 pesos. San Miguel saw its A shares fall four percent to 58.50 pesos while its B shares were down 6.5 percent to 58 pesos.