Most Southeast Asian stocks gain

Most Southeast Asian stock markets posted small gains on Friday at the end of a volatile week dominated by Japan's nuclear crisis, with shares in the region's refineries in demand after some Japanese plants closed. Market players traded cautiously on Friday, with unrest in the Middle East adding to the risks to global economic growth, and turnover in most markets was low. In the Thai market it was just 70 percent of the average of the past 30 days.
"Not many retail investors are happy to trade with this uncertain backdrop and so the market has lacked direction and volume," said Bangkok-based Andrew Yates, head of international equity sales at broker Asia Plus Securities. Asian stocks were generally positive on the day, with the MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.96 percent by 0936 GMT and the MSCI index of emerging market stocks up 0.39 percent.
Japanese shares jumped nearly 3 percent and the yen tumbled on Friday after the Group of Seven agreed on joint intervention to curb the soaring currency and calm markets jittery over Japan's nuclear crisis. Singapore's Straits Times Index ended down 0.2 percent, after climbing almost 1 percent at one point, led by financials, with Overseas Chinese Banking Corp down 0.2 percent.
Most Southeast Asian stock markets performed worse than last week, led by Vietnam's 6.9 percent drop, followed by Singapore's 3.5 percent. Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines recorded the worst weekly losses in three weeks, falling 0.4 percent, 1.4 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.
Gainers included Thai refiner Bangchak Petroleum, which rose 1.1 percent, on expectations of rising refining margins in the second quarter due to tight supply caused by stoppages at refineries in quake-stricken Japan. Indonesia's no. 3 coal miner, PT Indo Tambangraya Megah, rose 4 percent and Thailand's biggest, Banpu, gained 0.5 percent. Among weak shares, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Port Holdings Trust fell as much as 6 percent on its Singapore debut on Friday, hurt by the concerns about Japan's nuclear woes and escalating tensions in the Middle East.