RP share prices post slight gains

Philippine share prices posted slight gains on Tuesday, despite Wall Street’s slump overnight. The Philippine Stock Exchange index closed 8.15 points or 0.25 percent higher at 3274.26, with over 1.48 billion stocks worth P3.18 billion changing hands. Gainers outnumbered losers, 55 to 40, while 68 issues were unchanged. “The [local stock market] may be trying to decouple from the American [bourse]. Essentially, the direct effect still comes from foreign markets," Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Securities, told GMANews.TV on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped by 115.48 points overnight, while the NASDAQ composite and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes lost 45.27 and 14.4 points, respectively. The figures were seven-month lows for the Dow and S&P index, owing to the four-year low posted by the euro. Roxas said Wednesday’s proclamation of the president and vice president did not affect Tuesday’s trading, and would not likely to affect tomorrow’s bourse. “I think investors have already been discounting that," he said. The broader all-share index barely changed, adding 0.19 percent or 3.86 points to 2,086.02. Mining and oil stocks led the day’s gainers, closing 1.94 percent or 168.17 points higher at 8,829.71. Property stocks went up by 1.21 percent or 14.17 points, closing at 1,185.65. Industrial stocks, meanwhile, went up by less than a percent to 5,127.85, while holding firms barely moved at 2,212.91. Financial stocks slipped by a point or 0.14 percent to 716.1, while service stocks shed less than a point to 1,451.31. —VS, GMANews.TV