RP stocks slip on political tension from ZTE mess

Philippine share prices ended weaker for the second consecutive day on Thursday as the recovery in Wall Street and upbeat mode in other Asian markets were dampened by the political issues on the local front, analysts said. The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index dropped 4.99 points or 0.1569 percent to 3,176.06 while the all-share index lost 0.28 points to 0.0144 percent at 1,944.51. Losers narrowly beat gainers 44 to 41 while 63 stocks were flat. Volume traded reached 1.82 billion valued at P2.61 billion. Shirley Nebrida, PCCI Securities analyst, said the local bourse should have mirrored the Dow Jones' recovery but failed to come through on political tension. "Political noise... dampened investor sentiment somewhat, at least heading into the long weekend which includes anti-administration rallies planned for Monday which has been declared a non-working public holiday to commemorate the Edsa People Power 1 revolution," she said. Globe Telecom Inc., the country's second-largest telecommunication company in the country, climbed P10 or 0.06231 percent to P1,615. Geothermal power producer PNOC-Energy Development Corp. was unchanged at P6.40. Developer Ayala Land Inc. was unchanged at P12.25. Manila Electric Company, the country's largest electricity distributor, gained P0.50 or 0.6369 percent at P79. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV