Roundup: Philippine bourse suffers huge loss on profit taking

The Philippine stock market suffered a huge loss on Wednesday on profit taking.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dived by 1.86 percent or 150.03 points to 7,906.46, while the broader all-share index retreated by 1.85 percent or 85.03 points to 4,520.89.

Trading volume reached 2.28 billion shares worth 12.15 billion Philippine pesos (273 million U.S. dollars) with 158 stocks declining, 41 advancing and 35 were unchanged.

All six counters were down. "Foreign investors were on the selling side and this prompted others to follow suit, resulting in heavy selling,"analyst Gerald Pe of Luys Securities, Inc. said in an interview.

Net foreign selling on Wednesday reached 1.48 billion Philippine pesos (332.55 million U.S. dollars).

The market has consistently been posting record highs during the past sessions, raising the waning bells of an imminent selling among those who have already recorded significant gains.

Pe said neighboring equities were mostly in the green and so was the U.S. equities. "There is no reason for investors to be scared. The fundamentals remain intact,"he said.

Pe said Wednesday's performance was the result of a"sell-on- rally" where investors feel it is safer to book their gains instead of keeping them in the equities and wait for higher returns.

Stocks in the 30-company index were down. These include Alliance Global Group, Inc., heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Ayala Land, Inc. Endi