South East Asian markets: Malaysia, Singapore fall for third day

Southeast Asian stock markets pulled lower on Thursday, led by commodities-related stocks and financials as short-term traders cashed in quick gains because of the eurozone debt crisis, which risks damaging global growth. Losses in the emerging region were in line with broad Asia as doubts deepened about Europe's ability to stop its sovereign debt crisis from spinning out of control, with Germany and France split over the European Central Bank's bond-buying role.
"The mixed economic signals from Europe and America will continue to shake stock market sentiment in the short term," said Sukit Udomsirikul, head strategist at broker SCB Securities in Bangkok. The commodity-driven Thai stock market eased 0.4 percent in a choppy session, snapping a five-day rising streak, as energy stocks followed a slip in global oil prices.
Stocks in Singapore and Indonesia ended down 1 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. Malaysia edged down 0.8 percent, finishing at the day's low and the lowest in two weeks. For most markets, trading volume remained fairly flat, with turnover in Indonesia half the monthly average while volume in Singapore and Malaysia was around 20 percent short of the average.
"Retail investors remained active in the Malaysian market ... To be honest, its 'touch and go' kind of trading, so I suspect traders will keep trades small so they can square positions easily," a Kuala Lumpur broker said. Elsewhere, Philippine stocks inched down 0.2 percent, in active turnover of 2.2 times the 30-day average. Vietnam fell 1.3 percent, reversing Wednesday's 0.8 percent rise.
The MSCI index of Southeast Asia fell 1.04 percent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent by 0951 GMT. Among losers, Thailand's PTT Global Chemical Pcl dropped 1.8 percent after a 5 percent gain in the previous three sessions while Singapore-listed commodities firm Olam International Ltd was off 2.1 percent.
Technical-led selling hit big-cap banks, brokers said. Malaysia's Malayan Banking BHD lost 1.1 percent, reversing Wednesday's 1.5 percent rise, while Thailand's Kasikornbank Pcl was down 2.2 percent. Malaysia reported 26 million ringgit ($8.3 million) in outflows while Indonesia had $262 million in inflows, Thomson Reuters and stock exchange data showed.