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LOCAL share prices closed lower Monday, snapping a
two-day gain, with sentiment weighed down by concerns over a shaky
US economy, dealers said.
Investors adopted a cautious mode
on fears that a recession in the US, the Philippines’ largest
trading partner, would impact on the domestic economy, they said.
The composite index ended down
21.42 points at 3,482.28 while the broader all-share index lost 7.51
points at 2,135.56.
There were 70 decliners and 27
advancers, while 56 were steady.
Volume traded was 783.8 million
shares valued at P2.2 billion.
The local peso traded at 40.58 to
the US dollar.
Nervousness on Wall Street rubbed
off on the local bourse, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average
tumbled 246.79, or 1.9, percent on Friday to settle at 12,606.30,
dealers said.
They said investors there were
wary ahead of quarterly earnings reports, notably from the financial
sector hit by the sub prime mortgage crisis.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke suggested in a speech to a business group last week that
aggressive central bank action may be necessary to ward off a
recession. The Fed meets at the end of this month to decide what to
do with interest rates.
Dealers said there are
perceptions in the market that the US may already be in the midst of
a recession.
“We [remain] dependent on the
US for our exports, employment and investments. A recession in the
US will dramatically slow down the domestic economy, which will also
cause a downward revision in earnings growth estimates here,” AB
Capital Securities said in a note.
The US is the biggest market for
Philippine exports and home to the bulk of Filipinos working abroad,
whose monthly remittances of at least $1-billion fuel consumer
spending at home.
Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co. (PLDT), the country’s biggest company by market
value, fell P55 to P3,030.
Megaworld Corp., the
second-largest home builder, skidded 20 centavos to P3.35.
Food and drinks conglomerate San
Miguel Corp.’s A-shares, restricted to Filipinos, fell P1.50 to
P59. Its B-shares, which have no ownership restrictions, lost P1 to
P59.50.
--AFP
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