Most Southeast Asian stock markets were flat to weaker on Thursday as quick profit-taking hit energy shares and investors lowered risky holdings ahead of a quarterly reporting season. Singapore's Straits Times Index erased early gains to close 0.5 percent down, the Thai SET index and the Philippine index drifted into negative territory, reversing earlier gains on the day.
Shares in Malaysia and Indonesia both ended slightly higher. Vietnam, an outperformer in the region, rose 1.2 percent in strong volume thanks to gains in most big-cap shares. Losers in the region included shares of Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production, Indonesia's Perosahaan Gas Negara and Singapore's Sembcorp Marine, which all gave up gains from Wednesday.
Oil prices edged up on Thursday, nudged higher by a weaker dollar, while investors temporarily overlooked an unexpectedly large rise in US inventory levels that could quickly push the market back below $50 a barrel, analysts said. In Bangkok, the banking subindex inched up 0.2 percent, though trimming some gains in early trade, ahead of the announcement of July-September earnings releases expected from Friday through next week. Krung Thai Bank fell more than 1 percent at one point on a prospect of weak earnings for the quarter due to rising loan loss provision regarding Sahaviriya Steel Industries' bad debts, brokers said.