RP stocks dip as mining and oil shares retreat

Philippine share prices declined on Tuesday dragged by a fall in the mining and oil sub-index as gold and oil prices fell overnight. The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 18.88 points or 0.52 percent at 3,599.49 while the all-share index lost 13.29 points or almost 0.60 percent at 2,220.19. Losers led gainers 58 to 41 while 51 stocks were flat. Volume traded reached 2.8 billion valued at P5.6 billion. Jet Lazaro, Abacus Capital trader, noted that the mining and oil sub-index were the worst performer among the six sub-indices in the PSE. Mining and Oil plunged by 357.63 points or 4.23 percent to 8.090.41. Gold futures briefly fell under $800 an ounce, overnight, before recovering some strength to close down $27 at $807.70 an ounce. Light, sweet crude fell $1.70 to $94.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop came on reports that Oil-Producing and Exporting Countries would discuss increasing its output at an upcoming meeting in a bid to cool record crude prices. “There was nervousness across the region, Hong Kong was down by as much as 633 points. Locally, however, blue chip issues such as PLDT helped cushioned the impact of the sell-off," Lazaro said. Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. climbed P45 or 1.52 percent to P3,005. Philex Mining Corp., the country's largest mining firm, fell P1.15 or 10.70 percent to P9.60. Ayala Corp., the country's largest conglomerate, slipped P10 or 1.72 percent to P570. Holding company SM Investments Corp. dropped P5 or 1.39 percent to P355. Ayala-led utility firm Manila Water Co. skidded by P0.50 or 2.90 percent to P16.75. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV