Southeast Asian stock markets climbed further on Thursday after a successful bond auction in Portugal eased fears about eurozone debt, for now at least, with financial shares standing out. High global oil prices boosted appetite for energy and commodities in the resource-driven region, pushing the energy-dominated Thai benchmark up 1.5 percent, albeit in thin volume, with other bourses logging smaller gains.
Local investors were buyers, while foreign selling pressure eased in some equities markets. Indonesia saw $16.7 million in foreign inflows on Thursday after $582 million was taken out in the previous five sessions, while the Philippines saw just $4 million in foreign net selling after $70 million in the previous three sessions, Thomson Reuters data showed.
William De Vijlder, chief investment officer for BNP Paribas Investment Partners, continued to recommend clients go "overweight" on emerging markets, favouring stocks that offer relatively high dividends. Others advised investors to monitor coming bond auctions in Spain and Italy to see if the demand for the Portuguese debt was repeated and at what yield levels.
"If the results are firm, that would further support the trade in risk assets," said Bangkok-based Rakphong Chaisuparakul, a strategist at KGI Securities. Asian stocks in general gained on Thursday, with the MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.6 percent by 0914 GMT.
Thai stocks saw sluggish turnover of just 0.53 times the average 30-day volume, trailing Malaysia's 0.89 and Indonesia's 1.07. Singapore was relatively active, with trade of 1.28 times. Among the region's best performers on the day, Indonesian coal miner Bumi Resources rose 2.4 percent, Philippine Aboitiz Power added 4.6 percent and Thailand's Bangkok Bank jumped 5.3 percent, as higher interest rates should mean higher net margins
Food stocks were also bright spots on the day as investors bought them because of rising global food prices. In Bangkok, sugar miller Khon Kaen Sugar Industry jumped 3.6 percent, buoyed by the strong outlook for sugar prices, with brisk trade of 4.09 times its 30-day average. Consumer goods firm Unilever Indonesia and San Miguel Corp, the largest food and drinks maker in the Philippines, each gained over 1 percent.
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