RP shares close 0.44% lower
Agence France-Presse | 11/06/2009 12:45 PM
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MANILA - Philippine share prices closed 0.44% lower Friday due to a correction the day after a large block of shares in top power utility Meralco changed hands, dealers said.
The composite index lost 13.04 points to 2,931.47 while the all-shares index fell 0.39% to 1,839.46 points.
A total of 3.889 billion shares worth P3.655 billion ($77.08 million) changed hands with gainers outnumbering losers 82 to 45, with 52 issues unchanged.
The local currency traded at 47.417 to the dollar.
"This is just a healthy correction for the market which has been going up for much of the week," said Jun Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Inc.
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) had risen all week after the son of shopping mall magnate Henry Sy offered to buy First Philippine Holdings' stake in the power firm.
However later in the day, Metro Pacific Investments Corp, a local unit of Hong Kong-listed First Pacific that also has a large stake in Meralco, exercised its right of first refusal and picked up the shares. The news sent shares in the firms lower Friday.
"This is basically a sell-on-lose move," Calaycay told AFP, explaining that investors who were expecting Sy's group to win the bid had sold their shares after his group lost.
First Holdings dropped 3.45% to P56 while Metro Pacific slipped 4.76% to P3.
Meralco fell 12.22% to P194.
Philex Mining Corp. rose 1.89% to P13.50.
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