Philippines share prices closed 0.14 percent lower on Tuesday as the market consolidated amid a lack of any major news, dealers said. The composite index fell 4.40 points to 3,016.16 points while the all-shares index fell 0.14 percent to 1,888.93 points. Volume amounted to 1.125 billion shares worth 2.183 billion pesos (46.8 million dollars).
The local currency traded at 46.652 to the dollar. There were only 43 gainers against 55 losers and 73 that were unchanged. "The market continued to consolidate within the 3,000-3,050 point level mainly because there is not much news and even the upsurge in overseas markets failed to perk us up," said Astro del Castillo of First Grade Holdings Inc. Top-traded SM Investments Corp was unchanged at 315 pesos, as was Energy Development Corp at 4.55 pesos. SM Prime Holdings was up 1.03 percent at 9.80 pesos while Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co was up 0.77 percent at 2,600 pesos.