Boxing-Shields makes history with unanimous decision win over Dicaire

March 7, 2021 | 5:32 pm

AMERICAN boxer Claressa Shields scored a unanimous points victory over Canada’s Marie-Ève Dicaire on Friday to become the first undisputed world champion in two different divisions in the four-belt era.

Shields, 25, retained her WBC and WBO light-middleweight titles, won the vacant WBA belt and also took Dicaire’s IBF crown after all three judges at the Dort Federal Event Centre in Flint, Michigan, scored the fight 100-90 in the American’s favor.

“I was trying for the knockout,” said Shield, who landed 116 punches to Dicaire’s 31. “That’s what I wanted. And I almost had it… at the end of the day, I’m the new undisputed champion at 154 pounds — the first boxer to do it in history.”

Shields, a two-time Olympic champion, had previously unified all four major belts — WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO — at middleweight.

After the fight, she was quick to call out Britain’s Savannah Marshall, the only fighter to have defeated Shields as an amateur.

“You won a lucky decision when we were kids,” Shields said. — Reuters

Messi grabs two assists as Barcelona march on with victory at Osasuna

March 7, 2021 | 5:32 pm

PAMPLONA, Spain — Barcelona continued their rampant run of domestic form to beat Osasuna 2-0 away from home on Saturday and move to within two points of La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid, with Lionel Messi setting up goals scored by Jordi Alba and teenager Ilaix Moriba.

Messi helped Barça take the lead on the half-hour mark when he carved open Osasuna’s defense with a superb cross-field ball to Alba, who controlled before blasting into the roof of the net.

He then laid the ball off when 18-year-old midfielder Ilaix struck in the 83^rd minute, producing a confident finish inside the post from outside the area to score his first goal for the club in only his third league appearance.

The victory followed Barça’s heroic second leg comeback win over Sevilla to reach the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday and notched a 13^th league win in 16 games, while they are unbeaten since losing at Cadiz on Dec. 5.

The Catalans stay second but moved on to 56 points after 26 games, two points behind Atletico Madrid who have played 24 matches and host third-placed Real Madrid on Sunday. Osasuna are 13^th on 28.

“We just needed to keep on winning. It wasn’t our best performance, but we played well and we deserved the win,” said Barça coach Ronald Koeman.

“We played with a lot of energy. We were tired, but we put in a professional performance and scored two great goals. I’m very happy, this is a very important run and I hope we stay on this path.”

Perhaps still feeling the effects of the 3-0 win over Sevilla after extra time, Barça took a while to settle and nearly went behind in the second minute. They were spared thanks to the first of three impressive saves from Marc-André ter Stegen.

The German had to scurry back to stop an audacious attempt from Osasuna’s Jonathan Calleri, who went for goal from his own half. He also made a truly outstanding save to deny Kike Barja later in the first period, flying to his top right hand corner and throwing up his left hand to swat the ball away.

With Barça then leading through Alba’s vicious strike, Ter Stegen rescued the visitors for a third time, denying midfielder Ruben Garcia from close range.

Having gone through a tumultuous campaign on and off the pitch this season, things are looking up for Barça, who will elect a new president in Sunday’s election.

They then head to France looking for another miraculous Champions League comeback against Paris St. Germain for Wednesday’s last-16 second leg, looking to overturn a 4-1 deficit.

“We have to rest now and then we’ll prepare the game. I don’t want to say it’s impossible, and we’ll go there and try to get a good result,” Koeman added. — Reuters

Blake Griffin

March 7, 2021 | 5:29 pm

WHAT’S in a name? For Blake Griffin, everything. He began building his up as a sophomore with the Sooners, with his outstanding efforts earning for his Consensus National Player of the Year honors. And after being selected first overall in the 2009 National Basketball Association, he added to its luster as a high-flyer with impact, headlining Lob City and, in the process, claiming six All-Star and five All-NBA berths. An acrimonious split with the Clippers followed, and, naturally, he aimed to prove it remained relevant in the pace-and-space era; in his first season with the Pistons, he showed his capacity to retool his game as a big playmaker with range.

Unfortunately, Griffin’s susceptibility to injury followed his transfer. Two surgeries to his left knee all but scuttled his 2019-20 season, and his shockingly poor start to his 2020-21 campaign showed how much his handicap has continued to affect him. And with his name and what it stands for coming under threat from his largely grounded game, he found himself bought out by the rebuilding Pistons. Now, he’s banking on it still possessing enough respect in order for him to latch on to a contender as a still-relevant contributor. If speculation is to be believed, he’s likely to see his wish granted sooner rather than later.

To be sure, Griffin has no shortage of suitors who deem him crucial, even critical, in lending credibility to title aspirations. No doubt, those casting a moist eye on the Larry O’Brien Trophy consider him to be a risk worth taking. Even as he will be welcomed on the cheap, he figures to be propelled by no small measure of motivation; he wants to underscore to all and sundry that his name still means something. In light of depressed expectations, he won’t encounter difficulty in this regard. At the same time, however, he means to indicate that it stands for winning — which may well be the bigger challenge for him.

Griffin hasn’t gone past the conference semifinals in 11 years as a pro, and it’s fair to argue that, if at all, he will be doing so as part of a supporting cast. If there’s anything his current-season stat line has highlighted, it’s that his best days are behind him. He began his pro hoops career bogged down by knee troubles, and it seems he will be ending it the same way. Meanwhile, he’s banking on his name to stand for something else: resolve. He may be relatively diminished, but he’s determined to be the best he can be, wherever he may end up, all the hurdles notwithstanding.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

Shake off your ill will, Britain tells EU over post-Brexit trade

March 7, 2021 | 5:20 pm

LONDON – The European Union should shake off its ill will and build a good relationship with Britain as sovereign equals, Britain’s top EU adviser David Frost said on Sunday, promising to stand up for the country’s interests.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr. Frost again defended Britain’s unilateral move to smooth post-Brexit trade between Britain and Northern Ireland, over which the EU has promised to launch legal action for breaching the terms of the Brexit deal.

Since Britain left the EU last year, relations between the two have soured, with both sides accusing the other of acting in bad faith in relation to part of their trade agreement that covers goods movements to Northern Ireland.

Frost, who led Britain’s negotiations to secure a trade deal with the bloc, was appointed as a minister and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s main point man for future ties with the EU earlier this year and looks set to take a firmer approach.

“I hope they will shake off any remaining ill will towards us for leaving, and instead build a friendly relationship, between sovereign equals,” he wrote in an opinion piece.

“That is what I will be working towards, acting constructively when we can, standing up for our interests when we must – as a sovereign country in full control of our own destiny.”

He again defended the British government’s extension of a grace period for checks on some food products imported by retailers to Northern Ireland as being “lawful and consistent with the progressive and good faith implementation” of part of the post-Brexit trade deal called the Northern Ireland protocol.

But he added: “Without this threat of disruption, we can continue our discussions with the EU to resolve difficulties arising from the protocol constructively – and we aim to do so.”

Northern Ireland’s future was bitterly contested during the Brexit negotiations. London ultimately agreed to leave the British-ruled province aligned to the EU’s single market for goods to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, fearing it could be detrimental to the 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of conflict in the province.

This has required checks on some items arriving in Northern Ireland from elsewhere in the United Kingdom, which some businesses say has made it difficult to bring in supplies. To address that issue, the British government extended the grace period for some checks until Oct. 1.

The EU disputes that the grace period extension was in line with the agreement, saying London should honour what it signed up to. It has promised to launch legal action, or a so-called “infringement procedure” against Britain. – Reuters

South Korea, U.S. scale back military drill over coronavirus

March 7, 2021 | 2:51 pm

SEOUL – South Korea and the United States will conduct its springtime military exercise this week, but the joint drill will be smaller than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic, Seoul said on Sunday.

The allies will begin a nine day “computer-simulated command post exercise” on Monday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

South Korea and the United States decided to move forward with the drills after “comprehensively taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation, the maintenance of the combat readiness posture, the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace,” the JCS said, noting that the exercise is “defensive” in nature.

The drills will not include outdoor maneuvers, which have been carried out throughout the year, and the number of troops and equipment will be minimized due to the pandemic, Yonhap news agency reported.

The exercises also provide a chance to assess South Korea’s readiness to take over wartime operational control (OPCON), and the series of scaled back drills could complicate President Moon Jae-in’s drive to complete the transfer before his term ends in 2022.

Even before the pandemic the drills had been reduced to facilitate U.S. negotiations aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programs.

The combined drills are closely monitored by North Korea which calls them a “rehearsal for war”.

While Pyongyang has sometimes responded to such drills with its own shows of military force, it may be unlikely to do so this time, said Chad O’Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.

“I think there’s too much on the domestic agenda going wrong to risk any significant tit-for-tat escalation,” he said on Twitter. “And this is a government which tends to focus most of its resources on dealing with one key issue at a time.”

North Korea’s drastic measures to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak have exacerbated human rights abuses and economic hardship, including reports of starvation, for its citizens, already battered by international sanctions, a United Nations investigator has said. – Reuters

New Zealand’s Auckland emerges from lockdown, Australia starts AstraZeneca

March 7, 2021 | 2:28 pm

MELBOURNE – Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, emerged on Sunday from a strict weeklong lockdown imposed after a community cluster of the more contagious British coronavirus variant.

There were no new local COVID-19 cases recorded on Sunday, health officials said, marking a full week of no community transmissions across the country.

Footage on TVNZ, New Zealand’s state-owned television network, showed people lining up at coffee shops on Sunday morning with many saying they were feeling relieved.

Auckland, a city of nearly two million, will continue to have limits on public gathering and masks are obligatory on public transport. Restrictions might be further eased on Friday.

Neighbouring Australia also had no local COVID-19 cases on Sunday, making it the 37th day of no infections this year. There have been no related deaths in 2021.

Swift public health measures combined with aggressive contact tracing, border closures and compulsory quarantine for travellers have been credited with making New Zealand and Australia highly successful in keeping the pandemic from spreading.

Both countries saw their economies recovering speedily in the second part of 2020. Australia’s economy expanded at a much faster-than-expected pace in the final quarter of last year and all signs were that 2021 has started on a firm footing too.

Coronavirus inoculation began in both countries, with the vaccination rollout in Australia becoming slightly complicated after Italy blocked a shipment of the AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt, among the first receive the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday after an earlier shipment, said the rollout is on track.

Inoculation with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine started in February, but most Australians will be vaccinated with the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

The weekly number of administered doses is expected to reach 1 million by the end of March when CSL Ltd begins to locally produce 50 million of the AstraZeneca doses.

The government is spending more than AUD6 billion ($4.6 billion) to support the vaccine rollout with contracts for over 150 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccines. – Reuters

Weak internet faced by 31% of Philippine home schoolers: poll

March 7, 2021 | 1:47 pm

Close to a third of families in the Philippines whose members take school classes online have poor internet connections, according to a Social Weather Stations survey.

The poll of 1,500 adults conducted nationwide in November found that 31% of families with online distance learners have weak connections. A combined 68% said they have either strong or fair connections, and most of them are on the main Luzon island where the capital region is, pollster SWS said.

The nation’s largest telecommunications providers are rapidly boosting capital expenditure as competition shifts to servicing people working and studying from home amid the coronavirus pandemic. PLDT Inc. on March 4 said it will spend a record P92 billion ($1.9 billion) this year, while rival Globe Telecom Inc. in February said its annual outlay will reach a historical high of P70 billion.

An estimated 4.7 million Philippine households have members in online distance learning programs, according to the SWS report. Nearly 9 out of 10 families spend an average of P901 a month on internet services, with 56% using pre-paid connections, the survey showed.

The Philippines has the second-highest number of COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia. It reported 3,045 new cases on Friday, the highest daily tally since Oct. 16. – Bloomberg

Moderna reaches supply deal with Philippines for 13 million vaccine doses

March 7, 2021 | 1:42 pm

Moderna Inc said on Saturday it has agreed to supply the Philippines government 13 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, with deliveries set to begin in mid-2021.

The company will work with regulators to pursue necessary approvals prior to the distribution, it said in a press release.

Moderna said it expected to reach a separate deal with the Philippines government and private sector to supply an additional 7 million doses.

In January, the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration approved the COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE for emergency use. – Reuters

Inflation hits 26-month high in February

March 5, 2021 | 7:13 pm

Consumer prices rose faster for a fifth straight month to a 26-month high in February as food prices continued to surge, the Philippine Statistics Agency reported on Friday.

Preliminary data from the PSA showed headline inflation at 4.7% last month, picking up from 4.2% in January 2021 and 2.6% in February 2020.

The February inflation result marked the fastest pace since the 5.1% in December 2018.

The latest headline figure is a tad lower than the 4.8% median in a BusinessWorld poll conducted late last week but falls within the 4.3%-5.1% estimate given by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for February.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno reiterated the uptick appears to be “transitory,” reflecting the impact of the African Swine Fever (ASF) on food prices, higher global oil prices and weather-related disturbances.

“The overall balance of risks to future inflation continues to lean toward the downside owing mainly to the continued uncertainty caused by the pandemic on domestic and global economic activity. Meanwhile, upside risks could emanate from the possibility of an early roll-out of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines in the Philippines,” he said in a Viber message to reporters.

Mr. Diokno also said the near-term inflation caused by supply-side shocks will not require a monetary response “unless they lead to second-round effects.”

Year to date, February inflation settled at 4.5%, beyond the BSP’s 2-4% target for the year.

Core inflation, which discounted volatile prices of food and fuel, stood at 3.5% in February, picking up from 3.4% the previous year and 3.2% a year earlier. It averaged 3.5% so far this year.

The PSA attributed the uptrend in headline inflation mainly to the uptick in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.7% from 6.1% in January.

It also noted higher annual increases in the following commodity groups: alcoholic beverages and tobacco (12.2% from 11.7% in January); housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (0.9% from 0.5%); health (2.9% from 2.5%); transport (10.4% from 8.7%); communication (0.3% from 0.2%); and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services (3.2% from 3%).

The food-alone index accelerated to 7% in February from 6.6% the previous month, and 2.1% a year ago.

Among select food items, faster price increases were observed in meat (20.7% from 17.1% in January); fish (5.1% from 3.7%); oils and fats (3.3% from 2.9%); food products not elsewhere classified (4.6% from 3.2%); and rice (0.5% from zero percent).

Meat prices have surged in recent months, due to supply constraints amid the ASF outbreak.

Similarly, the February inflation rate for the bottom 30% of households picked up to 5.5% from 4.9% in January 2021 and 2.1% in February 2020. The inflation rate for this segment was the fastest since the 6.3% reading in December 2018.

UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc. Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion said the acceleration in transport prices came from tricycle, jeepney and bus fares.

“The ‘new normal’ in public transport, with fewer people allowed to ride and allot for social distancing protocols and other restrictions may be taking a toll on supply of transport with tricycle, jeepney and bus drivers and companies adjusting to the new schemes. Anecdotal stories on the ground of higher charges for transport confirm these observations,” he said in an e-mail.

He also expects meat prices to continue rising due to lack of local supply, but noted this trend is not limited to the country.

In a note sent to reporters, ANZ Research economists Sanjay Mathur and Kanika Bhatnagar said most of the components in the consumer price index will “remain subdued” despite price changes in the more volatile food and transport subindices.

“As such, we see no compelling reason for the BSP to exit its accommodative monetary policy stance this year. However, we are cognizant of the possible ‘second-round’ impact of higher food and fuel inflation on inflation expectations and spill-over effects to the prices of other goods and services,” they said.

ING Bank NV Bank Manila Senior Economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said he expects the central bank to “remain sidelined for 2021 while inflation will likely remain elevated in the near term before gradually decelerating by the [third quarter].”

For JPMorgan’s Research Analyst Milo Gunasinghe: “Headline inflation is set to remain around current levels and above the BSP target in coming months, and likely falling back into the target range in 3Q, considering base effects on fuel prices picking up despite food price pressures likely subsiding. We think the BSP will stay on hold through 2021 and maintain their accommodative policy stance given the fragile economic recovery,” he said.

“Any second-round effects from the transitory supply-side pressures would likely cause a shift in this view,” he added.

The BSP’s Monetary Board at its first meeting on Feb. 11 kept key policy rates unchanged.

The central bank last year slashed rates by a total of 200 bps to provide support to the virus-stricken economy. This brought down the overnight reverse repurchase, lending, and deposit rates to current record lows of 2%, 2.5%, and 1.5%, respectively.

The Monetary Board will next meet on March 25 to discuss policy. — Lourdes O. Pilar with inputs from Luz Wendy T. Noble

Philippine banks’ NPL ratio may rise up to 5% by end-2021 – Fitch

March 5, 2021 | 7:09 pm

The Philippine banking industry will likely see a rise in soured loans this year as many consumers struggle to settle their debts amid the crisis, Fitch Ratings said.

The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is expected to spike to 4.5-5% by end-2021 as more bad loans pile up in the first half, the debt watcher said in a note released on Friday.

“We expect Philippine borrowers to have a harder time meeting their debt obligations after the expiry of the moratorium, than borrowers in more developed markets where aggressive fiscal stimuli have resulted in larger cash handouts and stronger employment support,” Fitch analysts Tamma Febrian and Willie Tanoto said.

While employment prospects will likely improve as the economy gradually recovers, they noted the jobs market will remain sluggish for at least several quarters.

This in turn will impact consumer loan quality that will keep NPL ratios elevated this year.

The jobless rate in the country stood at 8.7% or about 3.813 million unemployed Filipinos in October, much higher than the 4.6% or 2.045 million jobless a year earlier. This was an improvement from the record 17.6% unemployment rate in April when 7.228 million individuals were jobless amid the lockdown.

“The improvement in the national jobless rate has not translated into better consumer loan asset quality. This was partly because the unemployment ratio within the National Capital Region (NCR), where most of the banks’ customers are concentrated, remained stubbornly high at 12.4%,” Fitch analysts said.

The industry-wide bad loan ratio stood at 3.61% as of end-December, easing from the 3.78% in the prior month partly due to the impact of the temporary grace period for borrowers which expired in December. However, this was still higher than the 2.08% seen as of end-December 2019.

As of end-September, Fitch analysts noted the consumer loan segment with the worst NPL ratio was for motor vehicle loans (9.7%). This was followed by residential mortgages (8.4%) and credit card receivables (7.5%).

Meanwhile, the debt watcher flagged risks related to real estate loans.

“Banks that were actively underwriting mortgage loans at the height of the property boom in late 2019 and early 2020 are more vulnerable to heightened provisioning risks from the recent price correction as the property values of some of these loans may already be underwater, raising the incentive for borrowers to default or reducing collateral recovery rates,” Fitch analysts said.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin E. Diokno earlier dismissed financial stability concerns related to asset price bubbles.

Central bank data showed residential home prices slipped 0.4% year on year in the third quarter last year, as prices of condominium and duplex homes decreased by 15% and 8.8%, respectively.

However, prices of townhomes and single detached/attached houses rose by 12.4% and 7.4%, respectively in the same period.

As bad loans pile up, Fitch said the passage of the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) Law will be a source of relief for the banking industry. Republic Act No. 111523 will cover assets of banks that will be deemed non-performing until end-2022.

“SPV (special purpose vehicle) law may help banks to offload NPLs, though pace of disposal will likely hinge on implementation and economic recovery,” the Fitch analysts said. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

BSP expands types of loans counted as Agri-Agra compliance

March 5, 2021 | 7:06 pm

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) has expanded further the type of loans counted as compliance with the mandatory credit allocation for agriculture and agrarian reform activities.

“This is an interim measure while awaiting the amendment of Republic Act (RA) 10000 (Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009) itself,” Monetary Board member V. Bruce J. Tolentino said in a Twitter message.

Circular No. 1111 signed by BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno on March 3 said loans for activities involved in the agricultural value chain from farming, fishing, as well as other processes involved in converting an agricultural product from raw material to its consumption form will now be counted as agri-agra credit.

This means even loans to businesses related to input production, farm and fishery operations and management, equipment and supplies manufacturing, food processing, trading, and retailing will also be qualified as compliance with the Agri-Agra law.

The central bank also expanded its definition for agrarian reform beneficiaries to include communities and integrated development made up of farmers that were granted land or benefited from redistributed land through previous agrarian reform programs.

Loans to surviving family members in case initial beneficiaries die or are already incapable to manage awarded land are also included in the revised measure.

Moreover, bonds issued by banks whose proceeds will finance lending to agrarian reform beneficiaries will also be counted as part of the agrarian reform credit quota.

“The amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of RA No. 10000 is expected to mobilize financing toward the agri-agra sector since it expands avenues for compliance by a bank within the legal ambit of RA No. 10000,” BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said in a text message.

House Bill No. 6134 was passed on third reading in March 2020 and has already been transmitted to the Senate. Its counterpart Senate Bill 1924 is pending in the committee level.

As of December, banks disbursed loans worth P642.371 billion as part of their compliance for the agricultural segment of the Agri-Agra law, BSP data showed. This is only 9% of their P7.136 trillion loanable funds, short of the 15% minimum requirement.

Compliance for the agrarian reform segment meanwhile stood at P71.228 billion, only 1% of their loanable funds and also lower than the 10% minimum. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Security Bank to face asset quality risks due to large retail loan portfolio

March 5, 2021 | 7:02 pm

SECURITY BANK Corp. will continue to face asset quality pressures this year mainly due to its “troubled retail portfolio,” S&P Global Ratings said on Friday.

“The bank has aggressively expanded into retail banking during the past five to six years, with its consumer banking portfolio reaching 28% of the overall loan book at its peak in December 2019, compared with 5% at end-2013. About 15% of the retail book is from unsecured retail products such as credit cards and personal loans,” the debt watcher said in a note.

Consumer loans make up 25% of Security Bank’s credit portfolio, higher than the industry average of 19%, it noted.

S&P also noted the bank’s elevated credit cost, which it expects to go beyond the industry average. The bank’s credit costs reached P26.4 billion or 4.7% of its gross loan book in 2020 from just P4.2 billion or 1.3% of the total in 2019.

“In our base case, we project Security Bank’s credit costs will be 2%-2.5% of gross loans in 2021, compared with our industry forecast of 1.7%,” S&P said.

The debt watcher said factors that buoyed the bank in 2020, such as a rise in net interest margin (NIM) and better trading gains, are “unsustainable” this year.

“Security Bank’s earnings in 2021 are likely to stay weak owing to a shrinking NIM, unrepeated trading gains, as well as still-elevated credit costs. We forecast a 20-25 bps compression in NIM in 2020, barring further cuts in the reserve requirement ratio,” it said.

The bank’s performance will depend on the country’s economic recovery, S&P said. Elevated credit costs and a prolonged period of weak earnings will be key risks to the bank’s capital strength, it added.

However, despite asset quality risks, S&P said Security Bank will likely continue to log a capital adequacy ratio within 11.5% to 12% in the next two years, still above the required minimum.

Security Bank booked net earnings worth P7.4 billion last year, dropping 26.7% from the 10.1 billion seen in 2019 as it boosted its loan loss provisions amid the pandemic.

Its shares finished trading at P128.10 apiece on Friday, down by P1.40 or 1.08% from its previous close. — L.W.T. Noble