Philippines shares closed 0.51 percent lower on Tuesday on profit-taking, dealers said. The composite index fell 11.64 points to 2,253.91 while the all-shares index lost 0.46 percent to 1,449.66. There were 40 gainers, 59 losers and 49 unchanged. Volume totalled 1.939 billion shares worth 3.547 billion pesos (74.6 million dollars).
The local currency traded at 47.52 to the dollar on Tuesday morning from the previous day's close of 47.25. "It's a bout of profit-taking, taking its cue from the sharp decline on Wall Street," said Manny Cruz of Asiasec Equities Inc.
"The perception is the market is quite overbought. Most of the issues have already been trekking higher for the past weeks," he added. Ayala Land Inc fell four percent to 7.20 pesos while Megaworld Corp slipped 3.15 percent to 92 centavos and Filinvest Land Inc slipped 3.03 percent to 64 centavos. However, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co rose 2.53 percent to 2,225 pesos.