MANILA – After three consecutive days of gains, the Philippines stock exchange index changed course and shed 0.6 percent, or 39.14 points to end the trading day at 6,431.35 points. The greatest declines were observed in the Services sector – falling by 1.08 percent – and the Property sector – falling by 2 percent.
Among the major gainers on Wednesday’s trading were BDO, Metrobank, Petron, URC and GT Capital. Stocks of AGI, ALI, SM Prime, Megaworld, Bloomberry and Puregold shed some points on Wednesday’s trading.
LONDON – Crises in Europe and lackluster U.S. market activities limited the extent of gains at the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The misery was compounded by greater yields on bonds and higher energy prices. Shares of mining firm ENRC advanced on release of its production data. Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline declared higher profits, that beat analysts' estimates. Other major ‘winners’ included Hargreaves Lansdown, Schroders, Antofagasta, Atkins, and Homeserve stocks.
Oil company BP, insurer Aviva, leading telecommunications multinational Vodafone, Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever, SABMiller and Aggreko were the major ‘losers’ at the FTSE-100 index. Besides these ‘losers’, Centamin shed 4.56% to finish the day at 59.70p. Debenhams shed 2.18%, Genus lost 2.66%, Invensys dropped 1.80%, Victrex fell 1.43% and Great Portland Estates shed 1.64% on Wednesday’s trading.
KARACHI – The benchmark KSE-100 index reached a 10 month high of 17,408.52 points on Wednesday’s trading led mostly by gains in the fertilizers, energy and banking sectors.
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“Aggressive institutional buying in hope that the caretaker government will take charge supported the climb,” opined Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities. Four of the five most traded stocks by volume on the exchange belong to the Telecommunications sector. Expectations of positive earnings announcements – set to be made next week – have caused this purchasing spree.
Worldcall Telecom gained Rs 0.63 to close at Rs 3.49 per share while Wateen Telecom’s shares also jumped by Rs 0.35. Analysts are expecting construction materials and energy stock sectors to provide better returns in the coming days.
MUMBAI – At the close of trading on Wednesday, Bombay’s benchmark index declined to 19,639 points. While the realty sector made some modest gains of about 0.7% to close at 2,211, it was counteracted by a decline in the Power sector of 0.5%.
Amongst the major ‘losers’ were NTPC, Coal India, Hindustan Unilever and ONGC which all shed 1 percent or more on Wednesday. Energy sector companies like Suzlon Energy, and companies from other sectors like United Spirits and HDFC were amongst the major ‘gainers’.
