Philippines stocks end lower, led by PLDT

Philippine stocks fell on Thursday on profit-taking in select blue chips like telecom leader PLDT and second-ranked Globe Telecom Inc as political concerns kept most players sidelined.
Analysts said the slow pace of the congressional counting of votes for the president and vice president continued to dampen market sentiment.
A Supreme Court decision which shot down a proposed two percent rate hike by the country's largest power distributor, Manila Electric Co (Meralco), also helped drag the market lower for a second straight day.
The Philippine main index finished 3.54 points, 0.23 percent, lower at 1,539.93 points on thin value turnover of 208.91 million pesos ($3.73 million).
In the broader market, gainers beat losers 33 to 26.
"Ongoing political uncertainties kept most market players at bay, resulting in the general sideways movement of most issues," said RCBC Securities stocks analyst Edwin Mendoza.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT), the country's largest phone firm, slipped 10 pesos to 1,095 pesos, on profit-taking, according to analysts.
Its chief rival Globe Telecom slid five pesos to 840 pesos.
Meralco-B, which is open to foreigners, fell 1.67 percent or 50 centavos to 29.50 pesos, despite the company's projection that it would still meet its profit target even though its rate increase had been blocked.
The Supreme Court ruled that energy regulators had been wrong to grant a 12-centavo provisional rate increase and that Meralco had violated provisions of the law, including failure to publish its application for the rate hike. "The Supreme Court's decision that Meralco's provisional electricity distribution rate adjustment was "illegal" provided an excuse for market players to sell down shares... and brought it (main index) lower than the 1540 support floor," Mendoza said.
He said most players were also waiting for the release of the budget deficit data for the first five months of the year, which is expected to be released in a few days.
The Philippines, which aims to cap its budget deficit at 197.8 billion pesos, said earlier this week it would absorb the 500-billion peso debt of state-controlled National Power Corp (Napocor).