Stocks in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand dropped on Thursday and investors sold recent gainers such as banks as worries about global growth lingered, while quarterly results generally failed to spur much buying interest. Other markets also erased most of their early gains but Malaysia and the Philippines still ended slightly higher and Vietnam climbed 1.2 percent, helped by a report the central bank would try to get borrowing costs down for industry.
Some brokers felt capital flows could turn round soon as blue chips would offer value after the fall this week and optimism about consumption in the region would support consumer stocks, luring back foreign investors. But some thought there were still profits to be taken.
"Even with the losses the banking sector has still outperformed the market. So investors are sitting on profits, particularly Bank Rakyat which has outperformed the market by more than 20 percent in the year to date," said Harry Su, head of research at broker Bahana Securities in Indonesia.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia, the world's biggest micro lender, fell 1.4 percent. It hit an all-time high on Tuesday and was among stocks leading the recent rally in Jakarta. The yen tumbled on Thursday as the Japanese authorities intervened to curb its recent gains and that buoyed shares in big Japanese exporters, driving the Nikkei up 0.2 percent on a day when the rest of the region fell around 1.4 percent. Most Asian markets were weighed down by worries the US economy was stalling and may even be in danger of slipping back into recession.
The Philippine stock market reported $5.7 million in foreign outflows on Thursday after nearly $60 million in inflows in the previous five sessions, Thomson Reuters data showed. Indonesia had $130 million in outflows over the two sessions to Thursday. In Bangkok, the Thai parliament will hold a vote on Friday to elect a prime minister to lead a new government and investors are looking forward to appointments of key economic ministers, which will probably follow next week.
The Thai market registered $1.08 million in foreign outflows on Wednesday, a tiny amount beside the $1.53 billion that flowed in the month after the July 3 general election. Among actively traded stocks, Thai lender Siam Commercial Bank lost 1.2 percent and Indonesia's largest gas distributor, Perusahaan Gas Negara, plunged 5.9 percent, falling for a second day as it traded ex-dividend. In Singapore, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp fell 2 percent. Singapore's second-biggest lender missed forecasts for its April-June quarterly profit as staff costs and bad debt charges jumped, partially offsetting strong income from loan growth.
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