MANILA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine stock market succumbed to profit takers on Friday.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index again failed to sustain its rally and gave up 0.53 percent or 38.46 points to 7,244.79, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.31 percent or 13.78 points to 4,388.01.
Trading volume reached 3.08 billion shares worth 6.98 billion Philippine pesos (140 million U.S. dollars) with 93 stocks advancing, 99 declining, and 48 were unchanged.
"The composite index failed to hold an early advance, succumbing to selling pressure with foreigners staying on the sell side again," analyst Justino Calaycay of A&A Securities, Inc. said in its daily stock market comment.
Calaycay said it may have been U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's rather optimistic picture of the U.S. economy and a direct affirmation of the need to raise interest rates soon that resulted in a tepid activity.
"Consequently, the local central bank is doing its own monitoring as an uptick in U.S. target rates, in addition to rising domestic inflation, may compel the local regulators to make a preemptive move," he said.
Stocks in the 30-company index finished mixed. Among those sold down were Ayala Corp., index heavyweight PLDT, Inc., and Alliance Global Group, Inc.
