Roundup: Philippine bourse closes lower on U.S. growth jitters

Selling pressure remains high in the Philippine stock market, which ended the four-week trading session down by three-digit on U.S. growth jitters.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dived by 1.41 percent or 110.65 points to 7,714.82, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.96 percent or 43.22 points to 4,453.

Trading volume thinned down to just 1.18 billion shares worth 13.98 billion Philippine pesos (316.29 million U.S. dollars) with 122 stocks declining, 54 advancing and 54 unchanged.

All six counters ended lower, led by the services sector,

"Sentiments took their cue overseas, specifically on institutional investors' response to the US Federal Reserve's meeting," online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said.

Thus far, supply pressure remains high, given the recent net foreign selling and negative market breadth.

The online brokerage said the continuous selling might also be prompted by month-end closing, as portfolio fund managers reposition securities allocation in anticipation of a U.S. Federal Reserves rate hike.

The U.S. Federal Reserve concluded its two-day meeting on Wednesday, downgrading its outlook for the U.S. economy after the Commerce Department reported that first quarter growth was only at 0.2 percent annual rate.

This sparked a sell-off among Asia and European equities and investors are now speculating that the U.S. Federal Reserves is unlikely to raise interest rates soon.

Even the Dow Jones industrial average index was down by 74.61 points on Wednesday and few big chips managed to survive the bloodbath.

Investors sold down heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Ayala Corp., and Alliance Global Group, Inc. Endi