Share prices close lower

Stocks on Thursday continued to drift lower in the absence of fresh positive leads, defying the recovery in regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index declined for a second day in a row, shedding 9.11 points, or 0.15 percent, to close at 5,959.22.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities, said the market

likely priced in the decline in future bank profits.

Manuel Lisbona, deputy chief at PNB Securities, said the market is still moving within the 5,800 to 6,200 range.

“It seems like a lot of players are on the sidelines waiting for positive leads. Market action may be subdued though biased upwards in the next sessions,” he said. “Piercing the 6,000 level will be a factor in getting some of the bulls back in play.”

Among index stocks, the biggest decliner was Petron, which lost 4.69 percent, followed by parent SMC (-3.81 percent). Other big index decliners were RLC (-3.41 percent) and ALI (-2.72 percent). Philex, FGEN and DMCI also slipped by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7 billion. There were 56 advancers against 90 decliners, while 40 stocks were unchanged.  Doris C. Dumlao