Share prices down

Philippine stocks sank on Friday as investors stayed on the sidelines, amid risk-averse sentiments overseas.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index, however, still managed to stay above the 7,000 level, as it declined 0.36 percent, or 25.36 points, to 7,003.22.

The broader all-shares index slipped 0.31 percent, or 12.81 points, to 4,150.28.

Subsectors on Friday ended mixed, with mining and oil as well as property stocks leading declines at 1.79 percent and 1.06 percent, respectively.

This was followed by a 0.77-percent dip for the industrial subindex and 0.01 percent for holding companies.

Financials and services were marginally higher, or by 0.05 percent and 0.1 percent, data from the PSE showed. Overall, a total of 94 companies gained, 88 were in the red while share prices of 39 companies closed unchanged, the data showed.

A total of 4.2 billion shares changed hands, valued at P28.5 billion.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the country’s biggest telecommunications company, led the list of most actively traded stocks, as it gained 0.7 percent to P3,182 a share.

This was followed by Aboitiz Power Corp. (down 3.58 percent to P39), Globe Telecom Inc. (down 3.49 percent to P1,602), Ayala Land Inc. (down 1.64 percent to P32.95) and Megaworld Corp. (down 0.85 percent to P4.65). Miguel R. Camus