The 30-company composite index fell 8.91 points or 0.61 percent to close at 1,447.74. The broader All-Shares index, meanwhile, lost a heavy 28.73 points or almost four percent to 693.80 due to the sharp decline in Canadian insurers Manulife and Sun Life. Shares in both companies were hit by a double-whammy as the peso has been recovering against the dollar and the parallel listed stocks in the US have been losing ground.
While the lull in the political upheaval facing President Estrada has contributed to the market’s weakness, the overnight drop in Wall Street and in other Asian bourses also made an impact on the local bourse as the cloud of uncertainty prevails.
Advancing issues trailed decliners 19 to 46, while 37 were unchanged in another lethargic trading session with just under P600-million worth of stocks changing hands.
Telecom companies were the most actively traded, led by PLDT with 17.4 percent and Globe Telecom’s Philippine Deposit Receipts (PDRs) with 11.2 percent of aggregate turnover. PLDT dropped P10 to P830 but Globe’s PDRs rose P5 to P660.
Leading the gainers yesterday was the Concepcion-owned RFM Corp., which advanced 15.6 percent or 14 centavos to P1.04 on reports of a 51-percent surge in its net earnings during the first nine months of the year.
Freshly-listed Macondray Plastics Inc. came up with a surprising performance as it ended at P5.60, 20 centavos higher than its IPO price of P5.40. The stock traded well as it did not fall below its IPO Technologies (up 10 centavos to P6.60).
Among the top losers, on the other hand, were gaming stocks Fairmont Holdings and Leisure and Resorts World as their prices snapped back gains made the previous day. Both bingo operators, Fairmont, formerly known as BW Resources, shed 28 centavos or 19.4 percent to P1.16 while Leisure dropped eight centavos to P0.51.
Sun Life slid P105 to P935 while Manulife gave up P75 to P1,075. Other decliners include the Ayala group led by parent Ayala Corp., property arm Ayala Land and banking unit Bank of the Philippine Islands.