Southeast Asian stock markets climbed on Wednesday as investors piled into financial stocks towards the end of the quarter and sentiment was buoyed by optimism that a Greek austerity plan would go ahead and a sovereign debt default would be averted. Late buying boosted trading volume in the region to the 30-day average, pushing Singapore up 1 percent to the highest in almost three weeks and Malaysia up 0.3 percent to five-month highs.
Thai shares surged 2 percent to two-week highs and Vietnam rose 0.5 percent. But Philippine shares fell 1 percent, led by a 3 percent drop in Philippine Long Distance Telephone amid foreign ownership concerns. Indonesia was shut for a market holiday and trading will resume on Thursday.
Indonesia and Malaysia, Southeast Asia's best performers so far in 2011, are close to their all-time highs set earlier in the year. That performance has been helped by foreign inflows. By 0958 GMT, the MSCI index of Southeast Asia had risen 1.1 percent, led by a 2.3 percent rise in the MSCI index for Thailand. Asian stocks rose as investors bet on the ability of Greece's government to pass austerity measures designed to prevent the country from going bankrupt. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan rose 1.3 percent.
In Bangkok, the market reported $69 million in inflows after the $320 million in outflows seen over the previous five sessions and $1.58 billion in outflows since the start of May, reflecting political uncertainty ahead of the general election in Thailand on Sunday. Market players appeared optimistic about the strong domestic economy, however, and snapped up banks.
Top lender Bangkok Bank and second-ranked Krung Thai Bank surged nearly 3 percent. Banks advanced elsewhere in the region, too. Southeast Asia's biggest, DBS Group Holdings, rose 0.7 percent, Malaysia's largest lender, Maybank, edged up 0.5 percent and the Philippines' second-largest, Metropolitan Bank & Trust , gained 0.9 percent.