South East Asian markets: Thailand, Malaysia reach two-week high

Major Southeast Asian markets gained on Wednesday in moderate volumes with Thailand and Malaysia rising to two-week highs but investors mostly remained cautious because of the lingering eurozone debt crisis. Malaysia jumped 1.9 percent to its highest close since November 15 and Thailand rose 0.7 percent. Singapore and Indonesia gained 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent respectively, getting to one-week highs.
Teddy Dwitama, an analyst at Jakarta-based OSK Nusadana Research, said US consumer confidence helped to boost shares though eurozone debt woes capped market gains in thin trade. US consumer confidence in November bounced back from a 2-1/2 year low as apprehension about job and income prospects eased, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday.
Kuala Lumpur enjoyed a foreign inflow of $158.3 million, Jakarta saw net foreign buying of $26.2 million while Bangkok's foreign trading recorded a net inflow of $52.2 million. Analysts expect the market to be more cautious in the rest of the week as Standard & Poor's hit some of the world's leading banks with a credit downgrade and eurozone leaders' move to ramp up the regional bailout fund drew a tepid response.
"The bottom line here is investors and funds want to close the year with whatever gains they have got so far and minimise the losses," said Song Seng Wun, a Singapore-based regional economist at CIMB-GK Research. He said that investors are unsure that Europe can set a path out of its debt crisis, so most of them re maintaining a "cautious approach."
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 percent at 0957 GMT, with major Asia markets were down on Wednesday due to eurozone woes. In Bangkok, the market was buoyed by a 25 basis point cut in benchmark interest rate on Wednesday to 3.25 percent, and the Bank of Thailand said it was ready to cut again if the economy was slow in recovering from severe flooding.
Top Thai oil firm PTT PCL jumped 2 percent after it announced plans to sell up to 20 billion baht ($640 million) in bonds from January 2012 for cash flow. PTT Global Chemical PCL gained 2.3 percent. In Jakarta, domestic economic optimism offset global growth worries. The market has lifted by infrastructure and consumer related shares.