Philippine stocks slide on a wobbly Wall Street

01/15/2009 | 03:30 PM

MANILA, Philippines- Philippine share prices on Thursday tumbled, weighed down by the sharp overnight downturn of US stocks, analysts said.

The benchmark 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index dropped 29.95 points or 1.5089 percent to 1,954.97 while the all-share index dipped 15.36 points or 1.2233 percent to 1,240.23.

Losers dominated gainers 70 to 17 while 30 stocks were unchanged.

All six sub-indices ended in the red, led by the 2.5308-percent slide by Holding Firms, 2.1458-percent loss by Industrial and Mining and Oil's 2.1427-percent decline.

Volume was thin with 540.12 million stocks worth P1.144 billion changing hands.

Nikka Maloles, analyst at online stockbrokerage firm 2TradeAsia, said the 248-point fall by the Dow Jones' industrial average overnight sent investors to sell shares.

"We've been moving sideways, the only trigger was the overseas catalyst," she said.

Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the most active stock for the day, dove P20 or 0.907 percent to P2,185 while rival Globe Telecom Inc. lost P25 or 2.9586 percent at P820.

Ayala Corp., one of the country's largest conglomerates, skidded P9 or 3.8793 percent to P223.

Geothermal power producer PNOC-Energy Development Corp. shed P0.04 or 1.7241 percent at P2.28.

Developer Megaworld Corp. plunged P0.03 or 4.1096 percent to P0.70. GMANews.TV