Stocks closed lower on Friday, largely pulled down by heavy trading in SM Investments whose price fell by 9.24 percent.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index ended 149.18 points lower to settle at 7,146.27 At the broad market, there were 102 decliners against 72 losers while 47 issues were unchanged.

SM Investments Corp. closed at P599, as trades reached 1.4 million shares. Other losers were Waterfront Philippines Inc, down 6.1 percent to 0.385 and Emperador Inc, down 5.79 percent to P6.35.

Volume declined from the previous session to 3.75 billion worth P8.01 billion from Thursday’s 5.08 billion shares valued at P6.59 billion.

Foreign selling amounted to P4.26 billion while foreign buying drew P3.53 billion

The peso gained three centavos to P50.36 against the US dollar at the Philippine Dealing System. Volume amounted to $304.55 million from $345.10 million on Thursday. DMS