PH stock prices continue to slide

MANILA, Philippines — Local stock prices fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday as fears of a nuclear meltdown in Japan, the world's third-largest economy, injected a new wave of global jitters.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index closed 17.87 points lower or 0.46 percent at 3,878.44.

Value turnover was extraordinary at P26 billion as there was a block sale estimated at P21 billion involving San Miguel Corp. The company was to make an announcement later in the day about the transaction, a company spokesperson said.

A stock trader said 300 million San Miguel shares were crossed at P70 per share.

The local market opened strongly but encountered some resistance near 3,900, thereby falling for the rest of the session but buying support close to 3,860 tempered the fall of the main index.

Despite the overall decline, there were 68 advancers against 60 decliners while 40 stocks were unchanged.

The day's decline was led by the services counter, which fell by 2.85 percent. The rest of the counters closed in positive territory.

PLDT, AEV, Aboitiz Power, Metro Pacific Investments, SM Prime and ICTSI weighed down the index.

On the other hand, investors snapped up shares of EDC, SM Investments, DMCI, AGI, First Gen, FPH, Semirara Mining, Cebu Air, Metrobank, Nickel Asia, Ayala, Banco de Oro and San Miguel.

Outside the P21-billion block sale, SMC shares were up by 1.4 percent to P162.50 on Wednesday. (report from Doris Dumlao, Philippine Daily Inquirer)