Weak regional markets dampen Phl stocks

MANILA, Philippines - Local share prices continued to decline yesterday, dragged down by weak regional markets  ahead of   China’s Communist Party meeting   to set the  direction of its economic policy.

At the Philippine Stock Exchange, the benchmark index dropped 23.81 points or 0.36 percent to close at 6,519.58

“It was sideways for most of the day. Weakness was seen in the second half of trading, partly because of the fact that Asian markets were weak in the region ahead of the (Chinese Communist Party) meeting,” said Jose Vistan of AB Capital Securities Inc.

Advancers led decliners, 83 to 67, while 35 issues were unchanged. A total of 3.08 billion stocks worth P29.51 billion changed hands.

The most actively traded stock was Travellers, which debuted on the local bourse today. It was joined by SM Prime, Metrobank, PLDT and Ayala Land in the actively-traded list.

Top gainers were Forum Pacific, Roxas Holdings and Roxas and Company, while the biggest losers were iRipple, DFNN and TKC Steel.

Most Southeast Asian stock markets pared some earlier gains as the prospect of monetary tightening in China gripped Asian stock markets.

“The market was lacking in direction and we resorted to looking at regional markets for guidance and the guidance was weak,” Vistan said.