South East Asian markets: Indonesia, Thailand lead regional losses

Stocks in Indonesia and Thailand tumbled more than 5 percent on Monday, leading the rest of Southeast Asia lower as commodity-related shares were hit by fears about the global economy as the eurozone debt crisis dragged on. Local currencies weakened as offshore funds cut exposure to the region.
The unresolved problems in Europe plus the risk of recession in the United States made investors wary of returning to riskier assets. "In the short term, there is still some headwind," said Joerg Zeuner, chief strategist at VP Bank Group, a Liechtenstein-based private banking firm.
"We consider the slowdown temporary ... Markets, however, are currently more pessimistic, leading to a repatriation of foreign stock market investments," he said. Late selling, fuelled by falls in European stock markets, swelled losses in Indonesian and Thai shares to 5.6 percent and 5.1 percent respectively. Singapore fell 2 percent and Malaysia 1.4 percent.
The Philippines finished down 3.4 percent in light turnover of just a third of the monthly average. Vietnam closed down 1.3 percent. The Philippine stock exchange extended trade by an hour from Monday, part of a two-phase programme by the bourse as it prepares to link up with other Southeast Asian markets. Thailand and Singapore had more active trade, with market turnover rising to 1.5 times and 1.4 times their 30-day averages respectively.
Manila posted $6.2 million in foreign outflows and Indonesia had $60 million, Thomson Reuters data showed. Malaysia had 136 million ringgit ($42.7 million) in outflows, stock exchange data showed. "Foreign selling in big caps is widespread amid a decline in global markets as funds have shifted out because stocks are seen as risk assets," said Anubhon Sriaj, head of research at broker BFIT Securities in Bangkok. The region extended losses suffered in the July-September quarter, the worst since October-December 2008 during the global financial crisis after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
World stocks also kicked off the final quarter of the year sharply lower as concern grew that a broad Greek debt default may be in the works after figures showed Athens would miss a deficit target. By 0923 GMT, the MSCI world equity index was down 1.26 percent while the MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan had dropped 3.5 percent. Commodities-related shares led losers amid a weak outlook for demand and prices. Thailand's top energy firm, PTT, sank 6.2 percent to the lowest in more than a year. Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals dropped 1.4 percent and Indonesian coal miner Adaro Energy slid 6.4 percent.