Roundup: Philippine bourse closes lower following drop of U.S. equities

The Philippine stock market suffered a three-digit slide on Monday ahead of the long stock market break and after the 202-point drop of the Dow Jones industrial average index.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dived by 1.81 percent or 124.85 points to 6,772.92, while the broader all-share index tumbled by 1.60 percent or 63.87 points to 3,914.43.

Trading volume reached 1.21 billion shares worth 4.67 billion Philippine pesos (99.29 million U.S. dollars) with 129 stocks declining, 31 advancing, and 43 were unchanged.

All six counters were down.

Online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said local equities took their cue from Wall Street on continued pessimism over the US Federal Reserves' December rate hike. "Trading volume remain elevated on a shortened trading week due to the APEC holidays in the middle of the week," it said.

The Philippines will be holding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation-Economic Leaders' Meeting on November 18 and 19.

Work in the public sector and classes in the country's National Capital Region will be suspended starting November 17 (Tuesday) until Friday.

"A technical rebound is the market's best

hope over the shortened trading week," analyst Justino Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said in his daily stock market comment.

Stocks in the 30-company index were sold down. These include SM Prime Holdings, Inc., Ayala Corp., and heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Endit