Southeast Asian stock markets pushed higher in light volume on Tuesday as bargain-hunting helped reverse some of the recent losses in consumer and commodities-related stocks but worries about the health of Western economies have not gone away. Most markets were steady to weaker in early trade, hovering around multi-week lows, but a rebound in European shares spurred late buying.
Jakarta's Composite Index climbed 1.5 percent after dropping more than 3 percent in the previous three sessions to its lowest in more than two weeks. Trading elsewhere in Southeast Asia was choppy. Singapore ended up 0.7 percent, Malaysia edged up 0.3 percent, Thailand rose 1.3 percent and Vietnam gained 0.7 percent. Bucking the trend, the Philippines eased 0.3 percent.
Foreign flows were mixed. Indonesia posted $47 million in inflows after $105 million in outflows in the previous two sessions, while the Philippines had $4.6 million in inflows after Monday's $9.5 million in outflows, Thomson Reuters data showed. The Malaysian bourse said foreign investors sold shares worth a net 104.6 million ringgit ($33 million).
The Thai market reported 934 million baht ($30 million) of net foreign selling. Asian shares in general rose slightly after falling in early trade. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.13 percent at 1013 GMT. Among actively traded stocks, Indonesian-based consumer goods firm PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk jumped 3.7 percent and Singapore-listed commodities firm Noble Group Ltd surged 5.6 percent.