Southeast Asian stock markets fell on Friday as investors turned cautious before job data that might provide more evidence of a stronger US economic recovery, while foreign-led selling pulled Indonesia to its lowest in nearly two weeks. Indonesia's main index finished down 2.8 percent as investors locked in profits in Southeast Asia's best performer of 2010. Singapore and most others saw smaller losses.
--- Indonesia worst on the week; big caps under pressure
--- Malaysia outperforms; telecoms in demand
Despite the bearish session, brokers in the region remained generally optimistic. "There's no negative news in the market and I think it's purely a healthy correction because investors realised profits," said Jakarta-based John Teja, director at broker Ciptadana Securities.
Indonesia fell almost 2 percent on the week, the worst in the region. It suffered $167 million in net outflows on the day, the biggest since July 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed. However, stocks in the region had a strong start in the first trading week of the year thanks to hopes of good earnings growth at listed firms and of strong economic growth in Asia.
Malaysia set new records early in the week and was the best performer, posting a 3.5 percent rise on the week. It gained 0.2 percent on the day, bucking the general market trend, thanks to buying interest in telecommunications shares, including the biggest, Telekom Malaysia, which jumped 4.8 percent.
The Philippine peso fell against the dollar on Friday, leading Asian currencies lower, as caution ahead of the job data spurred dollar short-covering. Manila's main share index fell 0.35 percent, with the market recording foreign outflows of $36 million, the largest in almost eight months, ending eight sessions of inflows. In Jakarta, top lender Bank Mandiri dropped 4.5 percent and Astra International, the country's biggest listed firm and its largest car distributor, lost 3.9 percent. Palm oil and energy stocks that did well earlier in the week were among underperformers. Singapore-listed commodity firm Noble Group eased 0.9 percent and Thailand's top energy firm, PTT, was 2.7 percent lower.