South East Asian Stocks: Thailand, Malaysia pull back in holiday trade

Stocks in Malaysia and Thailand eased back on Friday as investors wary of holidays in many major Asian markets cashed in on their big cap and resource shares. Market volume was relatively thin, with turnover for Malaysia falling to around half its 30-day average, Vietnam at 0.76 times its average. Turnover for Thailand was around its average for the month.
Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines were closed on Friday for Good Friday and Easter holidays and will reopen on Monday. The Thai benchmark SET index slid 0.4 percent on Friday, ending a five-day winning streak, weighed down by a 0.8 percent loss in the market's biggest firm PTT. A rally in PTT shares to three-year highs early in the week, driven by rising global oil prices, helped send the energy-driven Thai bourse to its fresh 15-year peak.
Technical signs for the Thai stock index still pointed to further profit taking, with its 14-day relative strength index at the overbought line of 72.8 on Friday. Malaysia's index lost 0.23 percent, with palm plantation firm Sime Darby and chemicals manufacturer Petronas Chemicals each edging down 0.3 percent.
Malaysia reported around $15 million inflows on Friday after taking in $90 million of the past two sessions, the exchange said. The Thai market gained $15 million inflows on Friday, adding on the $228 million inflows of the past four sessions. Veerathai Santiprabhob, the chief strategy officer at the Stock Exchange of Thailand, expects further foreign inflows in the second quarter (April-June) on the back of strong global liquidity and a favourable growth of the Thai economy.
"With strong global liquidity and the US Federal Reserve's keeping interest rates at low levels, capital tends to move to countries with good economic growth and good yields," he said. The Thai bourse is Southeast Asia's best performing bourse this year, with a 7 percent gain, ahead of second-placed Indonesia's 2.6 percent. Major Southeast Asian bourses fared better in the week, again led by Indonesia and Thailand, each gaining around 1.9 percent.
Most regional indexes set new highs this week due to inflows into Asian financial assets and earnings optimism in a reporting season. Indonesia hit a record high, Singapore climbed to its highest in almost three months and the Philippines marked the highest in more than five months.