Philippine stocks closed lower on Monday, led down by telecom issues PLDT and Globe Telecom, as investors took profits after the market's 3.3 percent rise last week.
"The market has already discounted that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may likely emerge as the winner in the May elections," said Jose Vistan, analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc.
Manila's main stock index fell 1.1 percent, or 17.50 points, to 1,571.90 points.
On Friday, the index leapt to a three-year high, boosted by a voter poll showing Arroyo moving ahead just three weeks before the May 10 presidential polls.
Polling firm Social Weather Stations said Arroyo had a lead of more than four points over film star Fernando Poe Jr at 35.3 percent to his 30.8 percent.
Another survey commissioned by the Manila Standard newspaper showed Arroyo, an economist, increasing her lead to over 10 points with 36.9 percent support against Poe's 26.4 percent.
The newspaper said it commissioned the poll covering 1,200 respondents nation-wide between April 20 and April 22.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT), the country's dominant phone carrier, lost 1.3 percent to 1,135 pesos while its main rival Globe Telecom shed 4.19 percent to 915 pesos.
PLDT affiliate Pilipino Telephone Corp (Piltel) went against the downward trend, closing 1.12 percent or two centavos higher at 1.80 pesos on speculation that it would accept the proposal of sister firm Smart Communications to buy its debt.
The offer by Smart, the banner mobile phone unit of PLDT, is seen by analysts as a prelude to a merger. It has given Piltel till April 30 to accept its proposal.
The B shares of Manila Electric Co, the country's largest power distributor, gained 1.67 percent to 30.50 pesos on hopes of better earnings in the first quarter.
In the broader market, gainers beat losers 25 to 21 while the prices of 40 issues were unchanged. Turnover fell to 321.56 million pesos ($5.78 million) from 926.46 million on Friday. Traders said they expected the market to take a cue from the announcement of first-quarter results in the next few days.
Vistan pegged immediate market support at the 1,520-point level.
Comments
Comments are closed.