Most Southeast Asian stocks lower

Major Southeast Asian stock markets drifted lower on Monday, wary of turmoil in the Middle East and Japan's nuclear crisis, while weak palm oil price outlooks prompted selling in palm plantation stocks. Investors were largely cautious about the potential impact of slow recovery in Japanese manufacturing on regional businesses, with Thai manufacturing output seen contracting in the short-term due to disruption in imports of parts from Japan.
Thai manufacturing output shrank 3.4 percent in February, partly reflecting concern over global uncertainty while Japan's quake would likely affect output in March and April. Stocks in Thailand edged down 0.5 percent, in line with most in the region, coming off last week's rally.
"It looked like profit-taking across the region. The trend in a short term should be volatile as funds will target smaller returns and sell quickly amid global risks," said Bangkok-based Viwat Techapoonpol, strategist at broker Tisco Securities.
The region's drop came in a subdued session, with turnover of most sharemarkets, including Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, falling short of the 30-day average. Foreign fund flows were mixed, with Indonesia reporting nearly $23 million in inflows on the day, building on $193 million in inflows in the previous three sessions, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Philippine stocks posted $4 million in outward foreign flows on the day, the data showed. Thai stocks saw $22 million in foreign buying after $205 million inflows of the past four sessions, the stock exchange said. Asian shares fell as turmoil in the Middle East and Japan's nuclear crisis left investors with little appetite for riskier assets. Japan's Nikkei finished down 0.6 percent.
Shares elsewhere in Asia were mainly weaker, with MSCI's index of Asian shares outside Japan easing 0.33 percent, by 0957 GMT. Among losers, Singapore's City Developments, Southeast Asia's second-largest property firm, dropped 1.7 percent after last week's surge to two-month highs.
Top oil refiner Thai Oil eased 0.6 percent, erasing part of a 4 percent jump on Friday due to profit margin hopes and Indonesia's PT Indo Tambangraya Megah, Indonesia's no.3 coal miner, shed 3.8 percent. In Singapore, Wilmar International, the world's largest listed palm oil firm, slid 0.6 percent, hurt by lower palm oil futures on expectations of higher output and lacklustre demand in March. Smaller rival Golden Agri Resources slid 0.7 percent and Malaysia's palm plantation firm Sime Darby declined 0.6 percent.