Phl stocks end marginally down over Syria concerns

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine stock market posted marginal losses on Thursday as investors remain uncertain of the local equities.

Buyers however were quick to pick up the battered stocks, trimming down the bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index's losses to a mere 9.11 points, down by 0.15 percent from the previous day's performance. The composite index stayed at 5,959.22.

The broader all-share index slipped by 0.2 percent or 7.33 points to 3,656.47.

Trading volume reached 1.07 billion shares worth P7.05 billion ($158.99 million) with 90 stocks declining, 56 advancing, and 40  unchanged.

"The composite index opened with slight gains, boosted by an overnight rally in the Dow Jones industrial average index but the weight of the issues many have opted to focus on were just too heavy to keep prices afloat," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said.

Among the issues cited were the on-going debates in the US Congress on a proposed limited action against Syria and the US Federal Reserve's meeting coming on September 17-18.

These sent the index tumbling down to as low as 5,896.96 points before buyers started entering the local equities and trimmed down the gains.

"Uncertainties breed risk and heightened risks push investors to pull out and stay out of the game until the risk dissipates as the uncertain become more certain," Calaycay said.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those that rallied were SM Investments Corp., Ayala Corp., and Manila Electric Co.

In other corporate news, Moody's Investor Service downgraded its rating for two local banks Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).

Moody's downgrade reflects the increasing international trend of imposing losses on holders of subdebt securities as a pre- condition for distressed banks to receive government support.