Southeast Asian stocks tumble

Southeast Asian stock markets tumbled on Friday, with index heavyweights coming under selling pressure as investors shifted money out of riskier assets because of worries over slowing global growth. Indonesia suffered its biggest fall in two weeks, tumbling 4.4 percent, with banks in particular hit. Singapore had its largest loss in almost two weeks at 3.2 percent.
Stocks in Malaysia and Thailand ended the day with smaller drops of less than 2 percent. Philippine shares and Vietnam fell 1.45 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. The selling intensifed late in the session after European shares extended the previous session's sharp sell-off and US stock index futures pointed to a sharply lower start on Wall Street. "The Indonesian market dropped today due to selling from foreign investors ... It's normal that banks got hit first when the market is down as government bond yields jumped," said Jakarta-based Purwoko Sartono, an analyst at Panin Sekuritas.
Foreign investors sold Indonesian stocks worth a net $203 million on Friday, the highest level in more than five months, taking net foreign selling this month to $753 million, after two straight months of inflows, Thomson Reuters data showed, while the Philippine outflow was $11.5 million. The Thai market had foreign outflows of 6.4 billion baht ($214 million), the exchange said. Asian stocks slumped on growing fears the US economy was sliding into recession and as some European lenders faced short-term funding strains, raising fears of a systemic banking crisis on the continent.
Singapore fell for a third week, losing 4.1 percent, the worst in the region. Indonesia posted a weekly loss of 1.2 percent, with Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines posting more limited falls. In a research note dated August 18, Morgan Stanley said it maintained its positive outlook on Indonesia, upgraded Thailand to neutral and downgraded Singapore to negative.
It believed that Indonesia's domestic economic growth would withstand a global slowdown and that Thailand's equity market was likely to outperform ASEAN markets during periods of political stability. Among top active shares by turnover, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, the world's biggest micro lender, dropped 6.6 percent, and Astra International, the biggest listed firm by market value and main auto distributor, plunged 9.1 percent. Thailand's biggest energy firm, PTT, lost 3.3 percent, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co , the Philippines' second-biggest lender by assets, fell 2.9 percent and Malaysian financial counter CIMB Group eased 2.7 percent. In Singapore, rig builder Keppel Corp lost 4.9 percent and rival Sembcorp Marine retreated 8.8 percent on concern that weaker oil prices could adversely affect demand for rigs.