Most Southeast Asian stock markets fell in thin volume on Tuesday, with resource shares pulling back in line with receding global oil prices and an interest rate decision in Indonesia weighing on local banking stocks. Sharemarkets saw lacklustre sessions as a decline in crude oil prices from a 32-month high - likely to extend in the near term - ate into appetite for risky assets. Turnover for most bourses fell below the 30-day average.
The pullback added to broad technical-led selling and pushed regional bourses to their lowest in a week, although optimism about quarterly results still bodes well for bargain hunting and market rebounds in the short term. Stocks in Indonesia finished down 0.7 percent, led by selling in bank stocks after the central bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged. Jakarta had $31 million of outflows on Tuesday, snapping four straight sessions of inflows.
Bank Central Asia , Indonesia's biggest lender by market value, fell 0.7 percent and Bank Mandiri slid 1.4 percent. Bank Indonesia kept its benchmark interest rate at 6.75 percent, as expected. A bout of profit-taking in risky assets pulled Asian shares lower, with the MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan down 1.6 percent by 0951 GMT.
In Bangkok, the benchmark index recouped early losses to end 0.8 percent higher, as investors selectively bought into banks expected to report strong quarterly earnings, led by a 1.3 percent rise for the fourth-ranked Siam Commercial Bank. "We have a buy call on big banks. Among our top picks include Siam Commercial Bank, which we expected to report a positive earnings surprise," said Viwat Techapoonphol, senior strategist at Tisco Securities in Bangkok.
Thai banks are due to announce their January-March results next week. Turnover for the Thai market fell to 0.67 times its 30-day average as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the Thai New Year holiday, known as Songkran, which runs from April 13-15. Trading will resume on April 18. Vietnam , Southeast Asia's smallest bourse, was closed for a second day on Tuesday and will resume trade on Wednesday.
Energy shares in the region, which had led rally in many markets, fell back. Among actively-traded stocks, Malaysia's petrochemical producer Petronas Chemicals Group dropped 3.3 percent. Indonesia's coal miner Adaro Energy lost 1.6 percent and Thailand's biggest coal miner Banpu eased 0.5 percent. Among slumping stocks were Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp, which shed 4.4 percent to its lowest in almost four months following its plan to raise funds by selling bonds and shares.