Stocks lose some ground near close

March 12, 2018

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost steam in the last 30 minutes of trading on Monday.

The index closed at 8, 453,50 points, up 80.59 or nearly 20 points lower from its peak. The broad market was mixed with 109 decliners, 106 gainers and 44 unchanged.

Volume rose to 8.62 billion valued at P7.19 billion from Friday's 2.57 billion worth P6.58 billion. Foreigners remained net sellers, with P3.13 billion while buying P2.407 billion worth of stocks.

Among most traded shares were MRC Allied, up 14.10 percent to 89 centavos; Ayala Land, up 0.60 percent to P42; Unionbank, down 0.28 percent to P91 and Metro Pacific, down 4.87 percent to P5.47.

The peso closed at P52.04 from Friday's P52.03 against the US dollar. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System reached $507.90 million from $592.10 million. DMS