Share prices decline for 3rd straight day

MANILA, Philippines — Share prices continued to decline for a third consecutive session to close the week in negative territory.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index finished the week at 7,932.96, slightly down by 0.75 points from the previous day’s close. The broader All Shares index lost a bigger 5.92 points to settle at 4,751.81.

“Philippine stocks fell as worries lingered regarding the US-China trade talks progress,” Regina Capital’s Luis Limlingan said.

“There was also not much market activity as the BSP announced they would maintain their key policy rates yesterday afternoon which was little surprise to investors and analysts,” he said.

Most Asia markets, however, were mostly higher as some apparently cheered recent developments on US-China trade.

In the local shores, counters were covered in red, except for financials index which managed a 0.66 percent or 12.63-point increase.

Mining and oil was the biggest loser, plunging by 1.87 percent or 167.36 points, followed by the industrial index which shed 0.38 percent or 38,83 points.

Market breadth was negative as decliners pummeled advancers, 109 to 61, while 63 stocks did not change.

Value turnover improved to P6.85 billion from the previous day’s  P4.18 billion.