South East Asian markets: Jakarta index jumps; Bangkok stocks near 16-year high

Southeast Asian stock markets climbed on Wednesday as a continued recovery in global stock markets lured bargain-hunters to riskier assets and as investors snapped up shares of firms with favourable quarterly earnings and positive outlooks. Trading volume picked up as more foreign funds flowed into regional assets, with market turnover in Malaysia and Vietnam surging well above the 30-day averagee.
Stocks in Indonesia and the Philippines led gains, with Jakarta's Composite Index gaining 2.1 percent, its biggest daily rise in almost four months, and Philippine main index advancing 1.6 percent. Thailand's SET index finished up 1.3 percent at its highest level in almost 16 years, while benchmark indexes in Singapore and Malaysia both rose around 0.8 percent. Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange index was up 0.34 percent.
Late buying gathered steam as investors hoped for strong demand for the European Central Bank's latest offer of cheap loans to help stabilise the euro zone financial system. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was trading up 1.5 percent by 1030 GMT while the MSCI index for Southeast Asia, made up of selected stocks, was up 1.7 percent.
The Southeast Asia index has gained around 13 percent so far this year, but is nearing overbought territory with a relative strength index reading in the upper 60s. Levels of 70 or above indicate markets may have moved up too far, too fast, leaving them vulnerable to a retracement or correction.
Global sentiment remains fragile and buyers were expected to turn more cautious in coming weeks, according to Bharat Joshi, assistant investment manager who helps oversee $5 billion of assets for Aberdeen Asset Management in Kuala Lumpur. "People have been sitting on cash for some time ... They're coming back after locking in gains. It's very much bargain hunting. There're obviously issues in Europe that continue to be in the background," he said.
Manila was still hovering below its all-time high and Jakarta was trading off six-month highs hit early in the month. Most Southeast Asian stock markets posted strong gains in February, led by Vietnam's 9.2 percent and Thailand's 6.6 percent. Among major market movers on Wednesday, Singapore-listed commodity trader Noble Group Ltd surged as much as 5 percent at one point on expectations its earnings will improve this year. It closed up 3.3 percent.
After the market closed on Tuesday, Noble posted a 57 percent fall in its fourth quarter net profit from a year ago, but the quarterly results were an improvement over the July-September period when Noble posted its first quarterly loss in 14 years. In Bangkok, Land & Houses Pcl, the country's biggest housing firm, gained 2.2 percent after it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and said it planned to launch a property fund. Foreign investors bought 3.5 billion baht ($115 million) of Thai shares and 298.12 million ringgit ($99 million) of Malaysian, stock exchange data showed.