Index tumbles amid mixed developments

By AP (The Philippine Star) Updated July 08, 2011 12:00 AM

Manila, Philippines - Share prices closed mixed yesterday as bleak external issues outweighed positive local developments.

The bellwether 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 22.90 points or 0.52 percent at 4,375.85 while the all shares shed 0.70 points or 0.02 percent at 3,063.89.

Market breadth, however, was positive with 68 gainers against 57 losers and 40 stocks that closed unchanged. Volume traded reached 4.27 billion shares valued at about P4.71 billion.

Save for mining and oil and industrial, which advanced 1.16 percent and 0.2 percent respectively, all other four sub-indices retreated.

Overnight, Wall Street posted modest gains. On Thursday, meanwhile, Asian bourses were mixed with Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand and Malaysia trading at a loss, while main indices in Australia, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea were trading higher.

In the local front, four of the five most active stocks closed in the green.

Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp., the day’s top traded, jumped P1.60 or 1.27 percent to P127.50 while Energy Development Corp. rose P0.08 or 1.16 percent to P6.96.

Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp. climbed P1.20 or 5.61 percent to P22.60. Meanwhile, a slowdown in the US service sector gave investors another reason to sell stocks Wednesday.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that business growth slowed at US service providers in June. Financial companies and health care providers reported the weakest results. The ISM report followed a broad sell-off in Europe and another interest rate hike in China.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2, or 0.2 percent, to 1,335 in late morning trading. Other market indicators were mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 stocks edged up 8, or 0.1 percent, to 12,578. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index fell 2, or 0.1 percent, to 2,823.

“There are concerns about what direction the global economy is going and that’s putting downward pressure on stocks,” said Dorsey Farr, a co-founder of Atlanta investment advisory French Wolf & Farr.