Southeast Asian stock markets ended higher on Tuesday, in line with their Asian counterparts, on global improved sentiments around Democrat Hillary Clinton's prospects of winning the US presidential vote. Clinton, who is seen as a candidate of status quo, has about a 90 percent chance of defeating Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House, according to the final Reuters/Ipsos poll.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.6 percent. Clinton's chances of winning got a boost on Sunday when the US FBI said it stood by its July finding that the democratic candidate was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing in her use of a private email server. "With the elections approaching it means that the period of uncertainty is about to end, and we are going to know who the President of the United States will be," said Jose Vistan, an analyst with Manila-based AB Capital Securities.
"More or less, we will have more guidance and direction with regards to economic policies." Indonesia posted gains for a third straight session to end 1.6 percent higher, led by consumer staples and telecom services. Telecom service provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) Tbk gained 3.1 percent.
Southeast Asia's largest economy grew 5.02 percent on an annual basis in July-September, the statistics bureau said on Monday, broadly in line with expectations in a Reuters poll. "Even though the GDP growth is in line with the market, at least it did not fall below the 5-percent benchmark, which is giving a boost to the market," said Tjandra Lienandjaja, Deputy Head of Equity Research, PT Mandiri Sekuritas. Philippines reacted to the Department of Finance data, which showed budget balance swinging back to deficit in September, and had narrowed its gains earlier in the session. However, the index closed 1.5 percent higher, showing that investors had shrugged off the underwhelming data. Malaysia and Singapore closed up 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent respectively, while Thailand and Vietnam ended marginally higher.
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