Most Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Friday as investors waited for cues from US data on when the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates, but Indonesian stocks fell after it posted weak April trade numbers. The Jakarta composite index ended the day 0.4 percent lower, trimming its weekly gain to 0.9 percent. The market posted net foreign selling worth 160.2 billion rupiah ($12.24 million) on the day, including selling seen in shares of Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Astra International, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Indonesia posted a trade surplus for the fifth straight month in April, but that stemmed from imports tumbling more quickly from a year earlier than exports did, showing that the economy remained sluggish at the start of the second quarter. Vietnam's VN Index shed 1.2 percent, its lowest close since December last year. It dropped 3.1 percent on the week, the region's worst performer.
Indexes in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand all recovered from early weakness and notched up gains on the week, in line with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan. The Philippine main index ended 0.6 percent higher, a near two-week closing high, as domestic investors bought shares, while foreign investors sold a net 109 million pesos ($2.45 million), stock exchange data showed.
The index was up 1.5 percent on the week, the region's best performer. The Philippine central bank's decision after market close on Thursday to keep its policy rate steady at 4.0 percent for a fifth straight meeting came in line with expectations and underpinned market sentiment.
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