Philippine share prices closed mostly higher Wednesday, the last trading day of the abbreviated week (markets will be closed Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in observance of the Lenten season in this predominantly Catholic nation), as investors regained their bearing from the previous day's jitters caused by the Standard & Poor's downgrade of US bonds outlook.

The key market index PSEi gained 29.56 points on the day to end at 4,274.77 points, as advancers outnumbered decliners, 89 to 53, with another 41 unchanged from their previous day's closing marks.

The Philippine peso, meanwhile, ended the trading session on the Philippine Dealing System at 43.275 to the US dollar, up by 0.055 against the previous day's 43.330, although market turnover was down at $694.35 million compared to the previous $960.2 million.

The peso's closing rate for the shortened week was slightly down against the previous week's 43.25.

At the Philippine Stock Exchange, mining and oil shares registered the day's highest percentage increase as a group, with the sectoral average rising by 2.7 percent to 16,190.36 points. However, total mining and oil shares trades for the day amounted to 906.05 million pesos, out of the day's total 5.53 billion pesos ($128 million) overall value.

Aggregate volume and value traded for the three-day week came to 9.56 billion shares worth 13.79 billion pesos. The average daily value was nearly 4.6 billion pesos, up from the previous week's 4.42 billion.

Average daily foreign buying during the week amounted to 1.96 billion pesos, higher from the previous week's 1.84 billion pesos, while average foreign selling reached 1.74 billion pesos, lower against the previous week's 1.77 billion pesos.

There was a total net foreign buying of 663.7 million pesos for the week, compared to 357.07 million pesos the previous week.

Local newspaper reports said officers at HSBC had predicted that the US credit rating downgrade could encourage international investors to move their funds in favor of emerging markets like the Philippines.

In 2010, the Philippines saw foreign capital inflows soaring to a total of $4.6 billion for the year, compared to $388 million the previous year.