Southeast Asian stocks mixed

Thailand's stock market fell to a one-week closing low on Thursday in high volume, led by energy and bank shares on concerns over the global economic recovery, but most other Southeast Asian markets closed a little higher. Thailand fell 0.6 percent to its lowest close since April 25, following many Asian markets down after weak US economic data, which showed the world's largest economy running out of steam.
Some regional markets felt the benefit of foreign buying but Singapore edged down 0.4 percent from a three-week high in thin volume. "Worry about a slowdown seems to be the reason, but more than that investors are in no rush before seeing the US employment report on Friday," said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist at Singapore-based CIMB-GK Research.
"Going forward, appetite will depend on what the employment report will suggest, whether better-than-expected employment or poor numbers, and investors will decide accordingly The MSCI index for Southeast Asia was down 0.4 percent, better than Asian stocks outside Japan, which were down 1.7 percent by 1003 GMT.
Malaysia closed 0.1 percent firmer with $83 million in foreign inflows, bourse data showed, while the Philippines gained 0.9 percent to a three-week high with $2.4 million of net foreign buying. Vietnam, the region's smallest bourse, jumped 3.4 percent to a two-week closing high on talk that market regulators may allow derivative products soon and expectations of higher liquidity after central bank moves on Wednesday.
In Bangkok, a 0.9 percent fall in top energy firm PTT and a 2.2 percent loss in Siam Commercial Bank pulled back the broad index. The country's biggest oil refiner, Thai Oil, was down 3.2 percent. Pichai Lertsupongkij, head of Thanachart Securities investment advisory business in Bangkok, said concerns over slower growth and Greece' public debt crisis weighed on the market. Bucking the trend, shares in Singapore's Portek International surged as much as 69 percent after a take-over bid, while Thai motorcycle and car hire purchase operator Thitikorn jumped 3.2 percent on expectations that rising motorcycle sales would boost its business.