Southeast Asian stock markets were mixed on Friday, with Thailand hitting a near 16-year high while concerns over rising oil prices and economic slowdown in the euro zone hurt some indexes. Despite volatility, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia this week enjoyed foreign inflows of $340.4 million, $133.2 million and $114 million respectively.
Indonesia recorded a net foreign selling of $88.9 million for the week mainly due to $99.1 million outflow on Friday due to uncertainty over the country's inflation and fuel prices. "Foreign investors still see value in this region's emerging markets," said Ron Rodrigo, head of research at Manila-based DBP-Daiwa. "Compared to developed countries at the moment, the region's emerging markets are poised to do well. So we see foreign inflows."
---- Thai benchmark hits near 16-year high The Asian markets edged up with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.4 percent, but the MSCI index for Southeast Asia was down 0.2 percent at 1012 GMT. Improvement in the US jobless data, which was at a four-year low last week, lifted market sentiment in the region slightly with Thailand gaining 0.5 percent to hit its highest close since July 23, 1996 and Singapore adding 0.3 percent, both in moderate trading volume.
Malaysia edged up 0.1 percent with a foreign inflow of 123.48 million ringgit. However, the gains were capped by negative sentiment and uncertainty over rising fuel prices due to the tension between Iran and the West and recession in euro zone. The Philippines ended flat with foreigners buying a net $10.4 million worth in shares on Friday.
Indonesia lost 1.6 percent to hit a near seven-week low after its central bank governor said inflation will rise above 5.5 percent this year if the government raises subsidised fuel prices by more than 1,000 rupiah ($0.11) a litre. "The market needs assurance, because there's uncertainty of how much and when the price hike is going to happen. Until then, market players will stop buying," said Satrio Utomo, equity analyst at Universal Broker Indonesia.
The negative sentiment pulled Jakarta's market heavyweights down led by financials with Indonesia's largest lender Bank Mandiri fell 3.2 percent and auto assembler Astra International Tbk PT slid 3.7 percent. Commodities led by energy shares pushed Bangkok with top oil firm PTT PCL and PTT Exploration and Production PCL gaining 0.8 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. In Singapore, United Overseas Bank Ltd weighed on the broader market with a 1.6 percent fall after reporting poorer-than-expected earnings.