Philippine Shares Down Early On SM Prime Losses

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Tuesday 9 November 1:09 PM

Philippine Shares Down Early On SM Prime Losses

DJ Philippine Shares Down Early On SM Prime Losses

MANILA (Dow Jones)--The main Philippine stock index is lower early Tuesday, weighed down by a sell-off in blue chip SM Prime, traders said.

At 0202 GMT, the 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange Index was down 10.41 points, or 0.6%, at 1801.75, after losing 0.3% Monday.

SM Prime is 5.2% lower at PHP7.30, contributing much to the index's decline, as the stock is trading ex-dividend Tuesday.

Last month, the country's largest mall operator declared a special cash dividend of PHP0.50 a share to shareholders of record Nov. 12. The Philippines' largest mall operator will pay the dividend on or before Dec. 1.

"Those who bought the stock just for the dividend have started selling. Buyers aware of that are waiting for the stock price to dip before picking up the stock," said a senior local analyst.

The sell-off in SM Prime has affected the rest of the market, with a number of investors also unloading other stocks in their portfolios. Ayala Corp., for instance, is off 1.5% at PHP6.50.

"The initial fall in SM Prime's shares caused some concern. It triggered some sort of panic selling," said Westlink Global Equities chairman Rommel Macapagal. "But so far the market seems to be holding above the 1800 level. For the rest of the session, we expect the index to just hover around that level."

The commercial-industrial, all shares, property, banks and financial services, and mining subindexes were retreating. The oil subindicator was advancing.

Gainers and decliners each totaled 14, as some investors continue to accumulate select stocks on positive corporate stories. For example, Digitel is up 2.5% at PHP1.62 on talk a Taiwan based company is keen on investing in the telecommunications unit of JG Summit.

There were 32 unchanged stocks. Volume was 168.3 million shares valued at PHP134.8 million.

-By Micheline R. Millar, Dow Jones Newswires; 632-885-0288; micheline.millar@dowjones.com

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