Cued by Wall Street, PHL shares fall on profit-taking

Shares traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) fell in active trading Tuesday as market players took as a cue to take profits the drop of Wall Street stocks in New York overnight. The PSE index (PSEi) dropped 25.20 points or 0.59 percent to close at 4,197.92. Over 894.02 million shares valued at P5.77 billion changed hands during the session. Losers led gainers 78 to 51 with 46 issues unchanged from their closing levels Monday. The drop comes in the wake of a recent run up, wherein the PSEi recovered about 200 points. “It’s a healthy correction, considering that the US market was down," said a trader of BDO Securities Inc. Asian stocks were also down on concerns over the strong Japanese yen and a possible interest rate hike. “The [Philippine market’s] rally won’t go on indefinitely, so the US market served as a cue for us to take profits," another trader with First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp. said. — VS/LBG,TJD, GMANews.TV