BANGKOK, Feb 24 — Southeast Asian stock markets were mixed today, with Thailand hitting a near 16-year high while concerns over rising oil prices and economic slowdown in the euro zone hurt some indexes.
Despite volatility, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia this week enjoyed foreign inflows of US$340.4 million (RM1.02 billion), US$133.2 million and US$114 million respectively.
Indonesia recorded a net foreign selling of US$88.9 million for the week mainly due to US$99.1 million outflow today due to uncertainty over the country’s inflation and fuel prices.
“Foreign investors still see value in this region’s emerging markets,” said Ron Rodrigo, head of research at Manila-based DBP-Daiwa. “Compared to developed countries at the moment, the region’s emerging markets are poised to do well. So we see foreign inflows.”
The Asian markets edged up with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.4 per cent, but the MSCI index for Southeast Asia was down 0.2 per cent at 1012 GMT (1812 Malaysian time).
Improvement in the US jobless data, which was at a four-year low last week, lifted market sentiment in the region slightly with Thailand gaining 0.5 per cent to hit its highest close since July 23, 1996 and Singapore adding 0.3 per cent, both in moderate trading volume.
Malaysia edged up 0.1 per cent with a foreign inflow of RM123.48 million.
However, the gains were capped by negative sentiment and uncertainty over rising fuel prices due to the tension between Iran and the West and recession in euro zone.
The Philippines ended flat with foreigners buying a net US$10.4 million worth in shares today.
Indonesia lost 1.6 per cent to hit a near seven-week low after its central bank governor said inflation will rise above 5.5 per cent this year if the government raises subsidised fuel prices by more than 1,000 rupiah a litre.
“The market needs assurance, because there’s uncertainty of how much and when the price hike is going to happen. Until then, market players will stop buying,” said Satrio Utomo, equity analyst at Universal Broker Indonesia.
The negative sentiment pulled Jakarta’s market heavyweights down led by financials with Indonesia’s largest lender Bank Mandiri fell 3.2 per cent and auto assembler Astra International Tbk PT slid 3.7 per cent.
Commodities led by energy shares pushed Bangkok with top oil firm PTT PCL and PTT Exploration and Production PCL gaining 0.8 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively.
In Singapore, United Overseas Bank Ltd weighed on the broader market with a 1.6 per cent fall after reporting poorer-than-expected earnings. — Reuters
