Southeast Asian markets mixed

Southeast Asian stock markets closed narrowly mixed on Friday in light volume, with foreign outflows sending all the main bourses down on the week because of worries about global economic growth, plus political concerns in Thailand. Appetite for risk was also reduced by continued EU debt problems and although some regional markets recovered ground in thin trade on Friday, analysts say they are running out of steam due to the gloomy global outlook.
Despite a 0.4 percent bounce back on Friday, Thailand fell 3.5 percent on the week, its worst performance since February. Singapore lost 0.6 percent on the day, Indonesia 0.5 percent and the Philippines 0.1 percent, but Malaysia edged up 0.3 percent. All were lower on the week.
There were heavy foreign outflow from Thailand, mainly due to political concerns raised in reports by several foreign brokers ahead of a July 3 general election. Bangkok suffered net foreign selling of $585 million on the week including $70 million on Friday. "Domestic political worries will be a market drag at least over the next three or four weeks ahead of the July 3 poll," said Anubhon Sriaj, head of research at BFIT Securities in Bangkok.
A modest rebound in the last two sessions of the week reflected bargain-hunting by retail investors, but in thin trade. Some analysts say the region's emerging markets still have attractive valuations and could rebound if there is better economic news from the United States, for example.
Thailand is trading at 10.9 times this year's projected earnings, the lowest in the region and compared to 11.9 for the whole of Asia. The Philippines and Singapore are trading at 12.9 and 12.7 times respectively, lower than the 13.8 of Malaysia and 14.0 of Indonesia, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed. In the short term, the Thai index may fall below the 1,000 level and there is major support around 985. It ended at 1,020.37 on Friday. Jakarta saw foreign outflows of $186 million during the week, while Malaysia saw net foreign selling of $26.72 million.