Philippine stocks drop, track Wall Street sell-off

Philippine share prices slightly dropped on Wednesday, tracking a broad-based sell-off on Wall Street following disappointing profit news from two major companies. The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 0.29 percent or 8.92 points in anemic trade to close at 3,096.7, while all shares shed 0.31 percent or 6.01 points to 1,943.11. Losers beat gainers 61 to 34, while 76 stocks were unchanged. Turnover was thin at 1.6 billion shares worth P2.47 billion. US stocks fell overnight after Alcoa's worse-than-expected profit report and Chevron's profit warning unnerved investors at the start of the quarterly profit reporting period. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.3 percent or 37 points, while the S&P 500 index shed 0.9 percent or 11 points. The NASDAQ composite also slid by 1.3 percent or 30 points. On the local front, half of the six subindices declined, led by service companies, which went down by 1.12 percent or 17.52 points to 1,544.24. Industrial stocks also dropped by 0.89 percent or 42.14 points to 4,708.57, while holding firms were down by 0.19 percent or 3.1 points to 1,628.16. On the other hand, the property index went up by 0.86 percent or 9.32 points to 1,092.36, while mining and oil companies were up by 0.5 percent or 52.27 points to 10,459.02. — GMANews.TV