Most Southeast Asian stock markets edged higher on Thursday, regaining a little lost ground as investors sought value in resource shares in particular. Asian stocks in general recovered and the dollar rose after US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said ahead of a G20 meeting that major currencies were roughly in alignment.
-- Manila outperforms
-- Foreign investors buy Indonesian shares
Equity indexes in Malaysia and Indonesia eked out small gains of 0.3 percent, Thailand inched up 0.07 percent, Vietnam ended up 0.7 percent and the Philippines rose 1.3 percent. But Singapore erased its early small gain to end 0.5 percent lower. The rise in Southeast Asian shares has paused somewhat of late, with investors waiting for details of the second round of the quantitative easing in the United States, expected in early November. UBS Global Economist Paul Donovan told a briefing in Bangkok that the size of the quantitative easing could be smaller than markets expected.
"I think the bond market and the currrency market have tended to react to quantitative policy expectations. The equities market has reacted more to economic data and to earnings numbers," Donovan said. For Thailand, it had an end-2010 target of 1,050, with bank and energy shares its top picks, said Ian Gisbourne, head of research at UBS Securities (Thailand) Ltd. The index ended at 988.80 on Thursday, still struggling to get past 1,000.
UBS Securities forecast a 20 percent increase in the Thai index over the next 12 months. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan was up 0.45 percent by 0922 GMT, reversing falls after China's first rate rise in nearly three years, which suggested to some investors it may be starting a policy-tightening tightening cycle.
Indonesia saw inflows of $30.5 million on the day, turning round from an outflow of around $150 million over the previous two sessions, Thomson Reuters data showed. Among gains in the region, Singaporean palm plantation firm Wilmar International Ltd rose 1.8 percent, reversing a loss in the previous session, and Malaysia's IOI Corp Bhd gained 0.4 percent.
Thai energy firm PTT Exploration and Production Pcl climbed 1.2 percent, Indonesia's Energi Mega Persada was up 1.6 percent and the Philippines' Aboitiz Power Corp was 2.7 percent higher. Trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange was briefly halted by a bomb threat, resuming in the afternoon. In Bangkok, the second-biggest bank, Krung Thai Bank Pcl, rose as much as 2.3 percent after it reported a better-than-expected quarterly net profit, with Citigroup Investment Research reiterating a "buy" rating on the stock.
In Singapore, Keppel Corp rose 0.6 percent. After the close, the world's largest rig-builder reported a better-than-expected 8.4 percent rise in quarterly net profit, helped by strong margins in its offshore marine business.
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