Philippine and Indonesian shares posted modest gains on Friday helped by selective buying in property and banking shares while some other Southeast Asian stock markets were flat or retreated amid profit-taking. Many market players appeared to stay on the sidelines ahead of US jobs data due out later in the day.
The Philippine main index gained up 0.49 percent, with market turnover at half the 30-day average, while Jakarta's Composite Index was up 0.6 percent, with turnover around 84 percent of the monthly average. In a choppy session elsewhere, stocks in Singapore erased early gains, ending down 0.24 percent, Malaysia was flat and Thai stocks fell 0.82 percent.
For the week, all regional markets had small losses. The biggest loser was Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange index , which edged up 0.1 percent on Friday but was down 1.7 percent on the week, Southeast Asia's worst performer. Friday's fall in Thailand "seemed to be pretty much about profit-taking," said Wikij Tirawannarat, senior analyst at broker Capital Nomura Securities in Bangkok.
"I think the near term flows to this region will be positive although it will be a kind of trading pattern. Overall, high oil prices will remain a threat to global economy," he said. Among actively traded, Ayala Land Inc of the Philippines rose 2.2 percent and Indonesia's PT Bank Mandiri Tbk gained 0.8 percent. Palm oil shares rose along with an upbeat outlook for palm oil prices, with Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources Ltd up 2.8 percent. In Bangkok, polyester producer Indorama Ventures Pcl ended 3.1 percent lower.
Asian shares rose as Greece moved to the verge of securing a bailout fund, and on expectations US nonfarm payrolls data will confirm a labour market recovery. By 1012 GMT, the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index gained 0.89 percent while the MSCI index of Southeast Asia, made up of selected stocks, was down 0.21 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.