Major Southeast Asian stock markets pushed higher on Thursday as demand for resource shares filtered through the region and investors picked banks amid strong loan growth outlook. Optimism about emerging economies grew as well as a recovery in risk appetite. Turnover on the Thai stock market jumped almost two times its 30-day average and Indonesia saw turnover rising above average.
Southeast Asia came under selling pressure last week amid fear over Japan's nuclear crisis but the region's bourses now hovers around multi-week highs, with Indonesia and Thailand hitting 10-week highs. Singapore and Malaysia both moved around their highest in two weeks.
Indonesia gained inflows of almost $100 million on Thursday, a five-week high, Thomson Reuters data showed. Thailand racked up another $23 million, adding to around $90 million of past two sessions, the exchange said.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.03 percent at 1000 GMT. In Jakarta, mining and finance stocks contributed around 40 percent of market gains on the day, with foreign-led buying coming in the afternoon session and coal stocks in huge demand, a Jakarta-based dealer said.
Gains included PT Bumi Resources, Asia's biggest thermal coal exporter, which jumped 2.4 percent and coal mining company Indo Tambangraya Megah, which gained 1.7 percent.
In Bangkok, coal miner Banpu surged 2.4 percent. Investors are hoping banks would report strong growth in February and expectations grew that loan growth for the first quarter could expand due to rising demand from industrial sectors for capacity expansion, including production for exports.
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