Share prices drop

After a four-day run-up, the main-share index on Thursday slightly fell as investors locked up gains.

The Philippine Stock Exchange dipped by 2.44 points, or 0.04 percent, to finish at 5,435.94, weighed down by profit-taking on the financial, industrial and mining/oil counters. Elsewhere in the region, trading was upbeat as China’s third quarter growth met expectations alongside some positive US housing data.

A big catalyst in the region was China’s much-awaited third quarter gross domestic product report. It came in at 7.4 percent.

Investment bank BofA Merrill Lynch said this could mark a trough for China.

“It might take another couple of quarters for growth to significantly recover, but we believe the risk for a hard landing is getting increasingly smaller, we at least could be confident to expect stabilization, and we even see some upside risk to our growth outlook at 7.6 percent in both 2012 and 2013,” the investment bank said.

Although global markets firmed up, the Philippine index on Thursday slightly dipped on profit-taking especially as the index neared record levels.

Value turnover at the local bourse amounted to P6.43 billion. There were 70 advancers against 95 decliners, while 42 stocks were unchanged.

Among those that weighed down the index were URC, BPI, Meralco, Metrobank, ALI, JG, Bele, PX, Manila Water, EDC and PLDT.

On the other hand, gainers were led by SMPH, Megaworld, SMIC, AGI, AC, BDO and RLC. Doris C. Dumlao