PH stock prices fall

MANILA, Philippines—Local stock prices tumbled on Friday as investors were unnerved by the overnight fall of stock prices on Wall Street that arose from escalating concerns over the US economy and debt crisis in Europe.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gave up 63.98 points or 1.42 percent to finish at 4,437.55 on Friday.

This developed as the closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Index slid by 512.76 points or a hefty 4.3 percent on Thursday to 11,383.68.

At the local market, all counters declined but the mining/oil, property and financial counters took the worst beating.

Turnover was extraordinarily high at P35.35 billion due to a series of block transactions on Manila Electric Co. at P90 per share. There were nearly nine decliners for every single gainer on the market.

Lepanto “A” (open only to local investors) and “B” (open to both local and foreign investors), Aboitiz Power, AGI, EDC, Metrobank, ICTSI, Megaworld, BDO, Philex and DMCI led the index lower. San Miguel Corp., Semirara, Atlas, Manila Mining, Leisure & Resorts and ORE also succumbed to profit-taking.

On the other hand, AEV, Zeus Holdings and PLDT bucked the downtrend.