Monday, October 27, 2008
Stock index plummets 12.3% (2:36 p.m.)
MANILA -- Philippine stocks plummeted Monday with steep losses triggering a circuit-breaker that automatically halted trading for 15 minutes.
The Stock Exchange index plunged 239.66 points, or 12.3 percent, to 1,713.83 points, the lowest close since September 2004 and the biggest one-day drop since February 2007.
Decliners outnumber gainers 123 to five, with 13 stocks unchanged.
The trading circuit-breaker, which is automatically triggered when the index drops more than 10 percent, was activated at 11:23 a.m. Trade resumed 15 minutes later.
The drop was caused by "big fund players" withdrawing investments to get cash and meet redemptions at home, said Grace Cerdena of 2TradeAsia.com.
"This is the loss of confidence in the market," said Emmanuel Soller, broker at EquitiWorld Securities Inc. "Our fundamentals were ignored, we followed the U.S. But I believe there was an overreaction by investors."
Shares of Banco de Oro Unibank Inc., the country's second-largest bank, plunged by nearly a quarter after it reported a net loss of 1.3 billion pesos ($26.8 million) in the third quarter, mainly because of its exposure to collapsed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Banco de Oro shares tumbled 23.7 percent to 22.50 pesos.
Ayala Corp., owner of the bank and the country's largest conglomerate, lost 11.8 percent at 200 pesos.
Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., which has interests in energy generation, shed 0.20 percent to close at 5.20 pesos. AP |
