Southeast Asian stock markets fell in light volume on Tuesday as renewed worries about Europe's debt crisis prompted investors to cut exposure to riskier assets, with resource shares under selling pressure because of losses in global oil prices. Late selling sent Indonesian shares almost 3 percent lower to the lowest in a week. Singapore plunged 2.3 percent, its biggest fall in a month, while Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam lost at least 1 percent.
Manila was shut for a holiday, reopening on Wednesday. Concerns about the Greek bailout deal, coming on top of lower-than-expected factory growth in China in October and the collapse of US futures broker MF Global Holdings, hurt risk appetite, brokers said.
The region's rally last week that helped most markets rack up decent gains in October was now seen as a little hasty and brokers expected further profit-taking in the next few days. "Fundamentally, global risks remain high. It's not a surprise to see the selling pressure coming," said Pichai Lertsupongkij, head of investment advisory for broker Thanachart Securities.
Malaysia saw outflows of $9.5 million after $315 million in foreign inflows since last week while Indonesia had $6.7 million in outflows after $0.2 million on Monday and $253 million in inflows last week, Thomson Reuters and stock exchange data showed. Commoditites-related shares led losers and ranked among the most actively traded on the day as oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel. Singapore's Keppel Corp Ltd, the world's largest rig builder, plunged 5.2 percent and Thai petrochemical firm PTT Global Chemical Pcl fell 1.9 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.