PHL share prices move sideways

Philippine share prices moved sideways on Friday as investors decided to play safe ahead of the weekend. The benchmark 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 10.66 points or 0.24 percent to 4,346.07 while the all shares inched up 1.59 points or 0.05 percent to 3,063.34. Gainers trounced losers, 75 to 54, while 51 stocks closed unchanged. Four of the six sectoral indices posted gains, led by Industrial's 0.50-percent jump. Holding Firms and Services were the session's laggards, losing 0.93 percent and 0.64 percent, respectively. Volume traded reached 6.90 billion shares valued at P4.15 billion. "The market is taking a breather and it is still digesting the plan of US President Barack Obama to offer tax incentives to companies that would hire more, but then, the bottom line of that is that the US would still need to spend. There's also the news about the US being under terror threat days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks," said Astro del Castillo, managing director at First Grade Holdings. Overnight Thursday, US stocks retreated while as of mid-trading on Friday, Asian markets were generally trading higher led by the gains in the main indices of Australia and Taiwan. In the local bourse, three of the five most active stocks for the day advanced. SM Investments Corp., the parent firm of the SM Group and the session's top traded, slid P7 or 1.25 percent to P553, while unit SM Prime Holdings Inc. climbed P0.42 or 3.40 percent to P12.78. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. "A" added P0.02 or 1.43 percent at P1.42. Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. dipped P30 or 1.24 percent to P2,348. Jollibee Foods Corp., the country's largest owner and operator of fast food restaurants, surged P5.10 or 5.87 percent to P92. --CMA/OMG, GMA News