Traders gesture as they monitor the trend in the trading at the Philippines Stocks Exchange at the financial district of Makati City. AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index slipped below 7,300 on Tuesday as lofty prices attracted profit-taking ahead of the central bank’s monetary setting.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 61.27 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,253.67.
All counters were in the red but the biggest decliner was the interest rate-sensitive property sub-index, which fell by 2.31 percent ahead of this Thursday’s central bank meeting during which further tightening of monetary policy is expected.
Turnover amounted to P8.6 billion. There were 62 advancers against 117 decliners while 47 stocks were unchanged.
Local property giants ALI (-3.32 percent) and SM Prime (-2.51 percent) led the property index lower alongside Megaworld (-0.89 percent).
Index heavyweight PLDT, the day’s most actively traded stock, likewise slipped by 0.76 percent.
Meralco, URC and GT Capital all fell by over 1 percent while AGI, Metrobank, AC, BDO and ICTSI also contributed to the day’s decline.
Melco Crown (+2.87 percent) was among those that bucked the day’s downturn ahead of the opening of its integrated resort City of Dreams Manila this last quarter of 2014.
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