Most Southeast Asian bourses ended higher on Thursday, the final session of 2010 in much of the region, with Indonesia poised to show the biggest gain in a year marked by foreign inflows and domestic economic resilience. The Jakarta Composite Index inched up 0.12 percent after an early climb to three-week highs. Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.14 percent, with the Philippines and Vietnam also eking out small gains.
Jakarta best in 2010 as most close for year
Foreign inflows into Jakarta, Bangkok double in 2010
More gains seen in 2011 for Southeast Asian equities
However, stock indexes in Malaysia and Thailand erased early gains, finishing down 0.36 percent and 0.29 percent respectively. Only the markets in Singapore and Vietnam are open on Friday. Southeast Asian equities are poised for more gains in 2011, perhaps not as big as this year as economies expand at slower pace, but with reduced volatility, analysts said.
"We expect some slowdown in terms of growth in the domestic economy. It could be difficult for the market to repeat the strong performance seen this year," analyst Jose Vistan of AB Capital Securities Inc said of the outlook for Manila. "The inflation issue will be in focus, possibly leading to the shift from an expansionary policy to that of some tightening and rate increases, which is going to affect market sentiment."
The Philippine stock market, Southeast Asia's third-best performer this year, logged $2.77 billion in net foreign inflows this year, Thomson Reuters data showed. Indonesia, the region's best, enjoyed $2.18 billion of inflows, more than double the amount seen last year. The index rose 46 percent in 2010, on top of an 87 percent gain in 2009.
For the quarter, Jakarta made the third-largest gain of 5.8 percent, after 5.9 percent in both Thailand and Vietnam and followed by Malaysia's 3.79 percent, Singapore's 3.7 percent and the Philippines' 2.5 percent. In Bangkok, profit-taking pulled bank and energy-related shares lower, with top lender Bangkok Bank down 1 percent and PTT Aromatics and Refining 0.7 percent lower.
The Thai market saw foreign inflows of $1.9 billion in 2010, as of Wednesday, almost double last year's, exchange data showed. Dealers said foreign investors should resume their dominance of the market next week when they return from holidays. "We expect more equity inflows into Thai stocks due to more signs of gradual improvement in US economic figures," said Rakphong Chaisuparakul, a strategist at KGI Securities.
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