Philippine Stock Index Falls 0.9 Percent

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index dropped 31.55 points, 0.9 percent, to end at 3,478.94 on its third day of decline.

"It's hard to catch a falling knife. The uncertainties remain and investors are jittery about external concerns we have no control of," said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Holdings. "A slowing U.S. economy and record high oil prices have continued to overshadow healthy fundamentals locally," he added.

In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 211.10 points, or 1.6 percent.

The most active stock was PNOC Energy Development Corp., or PNOC-EDC, which rose 9.5 percent at 6.90 pesos after the government's 60 percent stake in the company fetched a winning bid of 58.5 billion pesos against a floor price of 45 billion pesos.

First Gen Corp., the winning bidder for the government's stake in PNOC-EDC, ended steady at 58 pesos after earlier weakness in line with the market. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. was down 0.7 percent at 3,000 pesos, tracking the fall of its American depositary receipts, while Ayala Corp. fell 0.9 percent at 560 pesos.

Losers outnumbered gainers 72 to 35, while 60 stocks were unchanged.

The peso rose versus the U.S. dollar in anticipation of huge inflows from Filipino expatriates during the weekend. The dollar ended at 43.19, down from 43.27 on Wednesday.