Stocks closed lower on Wednesday, like many regional bourses.

The Philippine Stock Exchange ended 68.38 points lower to 7,254.93 points. In the broader market, there were 127 declines against 57 advances with 52 unchanged.

Volume turnover was 1.28 billion shares valued at P7.73 billion from Tuesday’s 1.39 billion shares worth P7.67 billion.

Foreign selling reached P4.71 billion while foreign buying was P3.75 billion.

Losers were led by Ever-Gotesco Resources and Holdings, down 9.63 points to .0169 and Keppel Philippines, down 9.39 percent to P5.02. Easy Call Communications, after gaining for several sessions, saw a decline of 5.65 percent to P5.18

Leading gainers were Millenium Global Holdings, up 17.31 percent to 0.305 and Zeus Holdings, which rose 6.12 percent to .0260.

The peso declined almost 13.5 centavos to end at P50.32 against the US dollar. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System rose to $381 million from $289.5 million DMS