Philippine stocks end lower

Photo from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock market retreated from record highs Wednesday as investors pocketed gains alongside jitters on the impact of a foreign capital ruling on listed companies.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 36.32 points, or 0.66 percent, to close at 5,437.29, defying mostly steady trading across regional markets.

The services and property counters posted the steepest decline of 1.76 percent and 1.18 percent, respectively, weighed down by index heavyweight PLDT and property companies.

PLDT, which has the single-biggest weight of 13.1 percent on the PSEi, saw its shares fall by 2.57 percent. Dealers said the market was jittery over the implementation of a recent Supreme Court ruling on foreign ownership in PLDT, which will also affect other restricted industries like utilities and property firms.

A provision in the final high tribunal ruling said the 60-40 ownership requirement in favor of Filipino citizens “must apply separately to each class of shares, whether common, preferred non-voting, preferred voting or any other class of shares.”

Value turnover for the day was heavy at P9 billion. There were 51 gainers, which were overwhelmed by 114 decliners.

Aside from PLDT, the index was dragged lower by URC, Meralco, Megaworld, ALI, RLC, ICTSI, Metrobank, FGEN and AEV.—Doris C. Dumlao