Stocks, peso lower

April 19, 2017

Stocks ended lower on Wednesday with telco shares declining after the Philippine Competition Commission appealed to the Supreme Court to allow the former to review a big sale of telecom assets by San Miguel to Smart and Globe. The Philippine Stock Exchange index closed 66 points down to end at 7,522.98. In the broader market, there were 125 declines, 67 gainers and 46 unchanged. PLDT declined 3.41 percent to P1,700 while Globe Telecome declined 2.45 percent to P1,900. Volume reached 966.47 billion shares worth P5.56 billion. Foreigners were net sellers with P3.31 billion and purchases at P3 billion. A big gainer was LMG Chemicals Corp, whose stock jumped 21.59 percent to P5.97 after Chemical Industries of the Philippines, Inc. disclosed it would sell  65.92 percent of its stake in LMG Chemicals Corp. The peso declined for the third straight day to end at P.49.725 from Tuesday’s P49.64 against the US dollar. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System  amounted to $436.5 million from $339.5 million. DMS