1.   Blue-chip stocks limped to a lower close after a spirited week.

2.   Despite the lower close, Cave said it could have been worse.

3.   PHILIPPINES STOCKS Concern over peso speculation pulled Philippine stocks to a lower close Friday.

4.   The lower close came despite a bullish corn and soybean production report.

5.   Dealers said the overnight fall in Wall Street and lower closes in Hong Kong and Tokyo had a spillover effect on the local cash and futures market.

6.   Hong Kong stocks dropped to a lower Monday close, unnerved by lingering concerns about the situation in Indonesia and ahead of local unemployment figures, brokers said.

7.   It was the second time this week that corn, wheat and soybean futures plummeted to a sharply lower close because of an aggressive technical selloff.

8.   Sydney The market tumbled to a sharply lower close as an early US-inspired fall steepened in the afternoon after Asian markets crumbled.

9.   STOCKS drifted to a lower close yesterday with liquidity drying up as cautious investors remained on the sidelines with little news to spur buying, brokers said.

10.   The lower close of soyoil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade the previous night also depressed market sentiment.