Philippine bourse closes lower as investors await U.S. job data

The Philippine stock market failed to sustain its strong opening on Friday as investors await the release of the U.S. job data.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 0.10 percent or 8.22 points to 7,970.35, while the broader all-share index managed to squeeze in a gain of 10.14 points or 0.21 percent higher from Thursday's close.

Trading volume reached 1.88 billion shares worth 6.57 billion Philippine pesos (139.97 million U.S. dollars) with 102 stocks advancing, 84 declining, and 47 were unchanged.

Of the six counters, only the industrial and the property sectors bucked the trend.

"Investors will now focus on the upcoming release of key U.S. jobs data," online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said in its daily stock market comment.

The online brokerage said the job report is expected to add only 180,000 in July compared to the previous month's 287,000.

As a result, the local equities traded sideways on Friday, following the movement of Wall Street. Dow Jones industrial average index was down by 0.02 percent on Thursday.

Stocks in the 30-company index ended mixed. Investors picked up shares of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and Ayala Corp. but sold down shares of Jollibee Foods Corp. and Ayala Land, Inc.

(APD)