Southeast Asian stock markets advanced further on Wednesday, with banking stocks leading the pack because of the positive loan growth outlook, and investors also picked selected energy and resource companies with good earnings prospects. Most markets saw trading volume pick up to their 30-day average, despite some caution over the euro zone debt crisis and uncertainty over whether Greece would need additional financial aid.
Stocks in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines extended their gains into a third session and hit their highest levels in almost two weeks. Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam hovered around a one-week high. Asian shares in general firmed while oil prices fell as the focus shifted from robust demand from China to signs the world's second-largest economy might be cooling.
Asian stocks ex-Japan were up 0.98 percent by 1000 GMT while the MSCI index for Southeast Asia was up 1.28 percent, led by a 1.5 percent rise in the energy-focused MSCI index for Thailand. Broker Citi Investment Research and Analysis trimmed its year-end forecast for Malaysia's benchmark index to 1,620 from 1,650. The index closed at 1,536.03 on Wednesday.
Among outperformers, Malaysian bank Hong Leong surged 4.5 percent, Singapore's DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia's biggest lender, climbed 1.5 percent and state-run Krung Thai Bank jumped 2 percent. Optimism about the earnings outlook of resource-related firms lifted share prices despite the volatility in global oil markets. Singapore-listed commodities trading firm Noble Group gained 3.3 percent. It reported a 77 percent rise in first-quarter net profit late on Wednesday, helped by strong volume growth and higher commodity prices.