Friday, December 14, 2007
Philippine stock index tumbles 2.4 percent on heavy foreign selling and regional weakness (3:10 p.m.)
MANILA -- Philippine shares tumbled Friday, hurt by foreign selling and as stock markets retreated around the region.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 87.52 points, or 2.4 percent, to 3,538.69. It rose 0.6 percent Thursday.
"For the past few sessions we've been seeing net foreign selling," said Grace Cerdena, head of operations at 2TradeAsia, "We think this is portfolio repositioning."
Foreign brokerages such as UBS and Macquarie led the sell-off, in which losers swamped gainers 106 to 23. Forty issues were unchanged.
Among blue chips succumbing to profit-taking, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. dropped 1.5 percent to 3,000 pesos, Ayala Land Inc. slid 4.8 percent to 14.75 pesos, and SM Prime Holdings Inc. plunged 7 percent to 10 pesos. (AP) |
