Shares fell mildly yesterday after a two-day rebound, taking a cue from Wall St.’s losses overnight, although the retreat was limited by bargain-hunters.
The drop in US stocks was triggered by worries about more credit losses from mortgage defaults and plunging housing prices in the United States.
However, analysts said the local stock market was able to trim its losses as investors widely anticipated a solid third-quarter economic growth.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) shed 13.1 points or 0.4 percent, at 3,524.19.
Losers beat gainers, 70 to 32, with 55 stocks unchanged.
A total of 8.07 billion shares worth P61.4 billion were traded.
“The market is going through a medium-term consolidation,” said Summit Securities president Harry Liu of recent market swings. Shares may advance in the next two trading days before the Nov. 30 holiday as fund managers improve their portfolios before the month’s end, he added.
“The market’s losses were lower than expected given Wall Street’s big drop and more bad news about the US credit markets,” said Jose Vistan, research head of AB Capital Securities.
“This is simply because our investors are also looking at domestic economic fundamentals like the GDP (gross domestic product) figure, which is likely positive according to the government.”
The government earlier said that the economy likely grew by 6.1 to 7.1 percent in the third quarter from last year, on the back of strong services and industrial sectors. It will announce official data tomorrow.
Conglomerate Ayala Corp. fell 2.6 percent to P555 after rising 2.7 percent on Monday. Its unit, property developer Ayala Land Inc., finished 0.8 percent off at P61.50.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) ended 0.17 percent higher at P3,010 while rival Globe Telecom Inc. finished 1.4 percent up at P1,500.
Top-traded eTelecare Solutions Inc., an outsourcing company which recently listed its shares by way of introduction, fell P22.50 or 4.8 percent to P450.
Mining stocks, which led the previous session’s advance, also ended in negative territory.
Philex Mining Corp. edged down 20 centavos to P9.70 while Lepanto Consolidated Mining’s B shares fell two centavos to P0.53. — AP, ABS-CBN News