(UPDATE) Stocks down on lacking stimulating factors

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine equities closed the week on the negative as investors found no reason to beef up their portfolio.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 0.70 percent or 49.81 points to 7,050.89, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.85 percent or 35.65 points to 4,170.01.

Trading volume reached 1.91 billion shares worth 32.55 billion pesos (745.83 million US dollars) with 111 stocks declining, 67 advancing, and 44 were unchanged.

Three of the six counters bucked the trend. These were the service sector, mining and oil, and the property sectors.

"After trading at 15-month highs and at one point even drawing excitement as it approached the 7200-mark, the PSEi closed the holiday shortened-week below 7,100 as investors' hunger for fresh leads went unmet," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Overseas, US stocks fell overnight with the S&P500 dropping below 2,000 as the crisis in Ukraine and less-than-expected retail earnings deflated optimism from a better-than-estimated economic growth.

Calaycay said with earnings and gross domestic product growth already priced into share prices, investors will look to yet another possible source of encouragement.

In particular, investors will look at the August inflation. Consumer prices have been on the rise this year, settling at 4.3 percent as at the end of July with the month posting the fastest pace in recent memory, 4.9 percent.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr revealed the regulator's forecast at between 4.7 percent and 5.5 percent.

Stocks in the 30-company index closed mixed. Among those picked up were heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Ayala Land, Inc.