Thai stocks posted small gains on Friday as investors bought recently-beaten energy and big-caps as the recovery in the local economy boded well for corporate results, while institutional selling sent Vietnam lower. The benchmark Thai stock index snapped three sessions of falls to end 0.3 percent higher.
-- Vietnam hits 1-week low
-- Most markets in the region closed for holidays
Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were closed for Muslim holidays on Friday. Indonesia remains closed until next Wednesday but the others resume trading on Monday. Thai stocks scaled their highest in almost 14 years on Monday amid increased inflows across Asia, but on the week Bangkok lost 0.6 percent, Southeast Asia's second-worst performer after a 1.6 percent fall in Vietnam.
The Thai market enjoyed inflows of 6.3 billion baht ($204.6 million) on the week and the baht, the third-best performer in Asia this year, hit a 13-year high due to increasing capital inflows into Thai bonds and stocks. Kasem Prunratanamala, head of research at CIMB Securities (Thailand) Co Ltd, expects Thailand and Asia in general to see more inflows, especially given relatively bearish sentiment in European and US share markets.
"We have a positive view for broader Asia as good earnings outlooks support prices and valuations and it's more likely that the bearish sentiment in European and US stocks will remain for the rest of this year," he said.
Thailand is trading at a relatively low forward price-to-earnings ratio of 11.8 times, compared with All Asia's 12.7 times, Indonesia's 14.4, Malaysia's 13.7, Singapore's 13.2 and the Philippines' 13.0, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Vietnam has the lowest valuation of 9.5, the data showed.
Among gainers in Bangkok, the country's biggest energy firm, PTT Pcl, rose 1 percent and top refiner Thai Oil Pcl jumped 4.6 percent to a five-month high. Vietnam dropped 2.7 percent to its lowest since September 1. Asian stocks in general rose to a four-month high on Friday, some investors inspired by positive US economic data to pick out bargains.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.2 percent by 0857 GMT, rising 2.1 percent for the week, outperforming a 1.6 percent gain in the MSCI World index. Southeast Asia was among outperformers for the week, led by a 6.9 percent gain in MSCI's Philippines index and a 5.2 percent rise in MSCI's Indonesia index.
The Philippines closed at an all-time high on Thursday and posted a 4.5 percent gain for the week, Southeast Asia's best performer, ahead of Indonesia's 2.1 percent. Indonesia scaled a record high on Tuesday before closing for its holiday. Malaysia, which hit a 2-1/2-year high this week, logged a smaller gain on the week of 0.15 percent, while Singapore, which touched a one-month high in the week, had a weekly gain of 0.7 percent.
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