Market retreats ahead of long Easter break

Share prices closed 0.35 percent lower yesterday as they tracked Wall Street’s overnight weaker performance, dealers said.

The composite index fell 11.09 points to 3,151.72 after moving between 3,136.33 and 3,152.44.

The broader all-share index fell 6.34 points to 2,016.98.

There were 52 decliners and 32 advancers with 66 stocks unchanged. Turnover totalled 3.06 billion shares worth P4.4 billion.

"The downtick in New York weighed on investor sentiment," said Jasper Jimenez, a broker at BDO Securities Corp.

Stocks fell overnight on Wall Street on renewed inflation worries compounded by a spike in oil prices amid tensions in the Middle East.

Dealers said investors here also avoided taking long positions ahead of the five-day Easter break from Thursday next week.

"There is not much activity so turnover is low. It looks like this (sluggishness) will prevail till after the Holy Week, unless something more positive comes up," Jimenez said.

Rizal Commercial Banking, or RCBC, was the most actively traded stock, falling P5.50 to P27.50.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), was unchanged at P2,500.

San Miguel A rose 50 centavos to P64.50 but its B shares fell 50 centavos to 71.50.

"If initial government estimates were optimistic then the plan of building up office space for call centers could be suspect," said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Holding Inc., a financial management and advisory company in Manila. "The number of jobs will determine the space for offices."

Call center and other providers of outsourced business services will probably create between 500,000 to 600,000 jobs by 2010, short of the one million target set by government, due to competition from other markets, high electricity cost and weakening English proficiency.

Megaworld, which is spending P33 billion in the next five to seven years partly to build offices for call center and back-office service providers, fell 15 centavos, or 4.4 percent, to P3.25. The stock rose 7.9 percent in the previous two days.

Ayala Land, which is spending up to P20 billion in five years to build 5.4 million square feet of offices for call centers, lost 25 centavos, or 1.5 percent, to P16. Ayala Corp., which owns Ayala Land, fell P5, or 0.9 percent, to P540. — AFP