MANILA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine stock market continued to trade sideways on lack of better leads.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index continue to succumb to profit takers, pulling Wednesday's session down by 0.11 percent or 7.96 points to 7,253.79, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.22 percent or 9.51 points to 4,373.82.
Trading volume reached 1.8 billion shares worth 8.26 billion Philippine pesos (166 million U.S. dollars) with 133 stocks declining, 59 advancing, and 52 were unchanged.
Two of the six counters bucked the trend. These were financials and the services sector.
Online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said the local market will continue to trade on a sideways range until investors see a clearer stance on US Federal Reserve's approach on raising rates this year.
"Focus would now be on whether the Fed would be hiking more than three times or above the quarter of a percentage point indicated in their previous statements," it said.
At home, local markets might want to look further on the implementation of the administration's infrastructure spending plan as gauge on better prospects for the year.
Stocks in the 30-company index finished mixed. Among those sold down were BDO Unibank, Inc., Alliance Global Group, Inc., and SM Prime Holdings, Inc.
