Southeast Asian markets: Philippines extends gains

Philippine shares rose 1.5 percent on Monday, extending gains into a third session, buoyed by the government's tax reform plans and upbeat corporate results. The country's finance Secretary laid out an ambitious tax reform agenda that would raise fuel taxes, lower corporate taxes, discourage tax evasion, and generate more revenue for the government's infrastructure spending programme.
The government plans to increase infrastructure spending to as much as 7 percent of gross domestic product by 2022 from 5.2 percent this year. "For the past couple of weeks we have seen an influx of foreign buying on several factors, including positive corporate earnings and on hopes that the tax reform plan will be passed by the Congress in June," said Manny Cruz, chief strategist with Manila-based Asiasec Equities Inc.
"The president's visit to China and Russia also added to the excitement on hopes that the government will be able to get some funding for its infrastructure plan." The Philippine Stock Exchange PSEI Index posted its highest close since August 2016. It added 1.5 percent last week in its third consecutive weekly gain.
Petroleum refiner Petron Corp climbed over 7 percent and conglomerate Ayala Land surged more than 4.6 percent on upbeat quarterly results. The central bank is set to meet on Thursday where it is expected to hold rates as "inflation is within the central bank's price target range". Meanwhile, most other Southeast Asian markets were flat to higher, with Indonesia hitting a record high on better-than-expected economic growth data. The Indonesian central bank maintained its forecast for 2017 economic growth at 5.2 percent-5.4 percent on Friday. [
PT Bank Mitraniaga Tbk was the biggest percentage gainer on the benchmark stock index with a surge of 34.7 percent. Malaysian shares closed 0.3 percent higher, helped by gains in financials including Hong Leong Financials and Maybank Banking Bhd. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.8 percent, snapping a three-session losing streak, on investor relief after centrist Emmanuel Macron won the French presidential election.