Stocks closed slightly higher on Tuesday even as mining stocks went down following a statement of President Rodrigo Duterte that he is considering a total mining ban.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index ended 28.66 points higher to 7,261.75. The mining sub-index lost 2.77 percent to settle at 7,268.01. In the broader market, there were 105 losers with 86 gainers and 48 unchanged.

Among mining stocks which closed lower were Marcventures Holdings , down 7.45 percent to P1.74 Philex, down 3.76 percent to P8..95, Lepanto down 3.41 percent to 0.198, Nickel Asia, down 3.28 percent to P6.19.

Volume reached 1.71 billion shares valued at P7.05 billion up from Monday’s 1.43 billion shares worth P6.48 billion.

Foreign buying reached P4.176 billion while foreign selling was at P4.16 billion.

The peso weakened to P50.36 from P50.325 against the US dollar. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System rose to $314 million from $233.40 million. DMS