Stocks ended lower Wednesday despite a big gain in mining shares after the Commission on Appointments voted to reject the ad interim appointment of Gina Lopez as environment secretary.

The Philippine Stock Exchange closed 20.84 points lower to 7,682.26 point. At the broader market, there were 98 gainers, 92 decliners and 52 issues were unchanged.

Volume reached 3.98 billion shares valued at P6.41 billion. Foreign buying hit P3.19 billion shares compared to foreign selling of P3.03 billion.

The mining sub-index surged by 4.55 percent but ended 2.73 percent higher towards the close of trading.

Mining issues were led by Apex Mining, up 18.24 percent to P1.86, Benguet A, up 15.56 percent to P2.08, Benguet B up 14.7 percent to P1.95 and Lepanto, up 8.42 percent to P.206.

Nickel Asia gained 1.05 percent to P.07 while Semirara went up to 2.18 percent to P154.50.

The peso gained P49.95 from P49.99. Volume reached $528 million from Tuesday’s $707.55 million. DMS