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MANILA — Philippine share prices extended their advance for the second straight session, but cut their gains ahead of the policy meeting of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

At the Philippine Stock Exchange, the benchmark index inched up 6.18 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 5,914.59. The financial, industrial, property and holding firms sectors squeezed out modest gains to lead the market higher.

Advancers beat decliners, 77 to 62, while 44 stocks closed flat. Value turnover eased to P5.14 billion from yesterday’s P5.67 billion, as 1.06 billion stocks changed hands.

Most actively traded stocks were Alliance Global, Universal Robina, SM Prime, PLDT and Robinsons Retail. Top gainers were Central Azucarera, Abra Mining and Maybank ATR, while the biggest losers were Nextstage, I-Remit and Primex.

You can’t fault investors for playing safe. Everybody wants to see a clear picture of the investment environment before making strong bets, said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Finance Inc.

The main gauge was up by as much as 0.63 percent in early trade until profit-taking set in.

The policy-setting Monetary Board today met for the first time since the US Federal Reserve decided to trim its economic stimulus, a key driver of financial market rallies around the world.

Since the Fed signaled it would taper its monthly bond-buying program last year, emerging markets like the Philippines have been taking a beating as portfolio funds exit developing nations in favor of advanced economies.

The fear that has blanketed the market and forced investors toward the exits and on to the sidelines come almost singularly from external factors – specifically, the QE3 tapering. While we have no data at the moment linking such move by the US money regulator to domestic equity prices, there is an evident selling bias by and among foreign funds, said Jun Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp.

As of yesterday, Wednesday, foreign net position amount to net sales of P7.644 billion, accounting for the bulk of the daily transactions value in the Exchange. The acceleration of their selling started towards the end of January, Calaycay said.

Investors have been speculating that an interest rate hike may come sooner than anticipated especially with the National Statistics Office reporting that consumer prices in January climbed to 4.2 percent, near the upper end of the BSP’s forecast range of 3.4-4.3 percent for the month.

Despite a more than two-year high inflation reading in January, the Board maintained the BSP’s overnight borrowing and lending rates  at 3.5 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. The rates have been at those record lows since October 2012.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 5.01 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,440.23 after a private report showed companies created few jobs than forecast, overshadowing an uptick in the service industries.