Most Southeast Asian stock markets eked out small gains in moderate volume on Friday, with high oil prices boosting appetite for resource shares and cautious investors chasing overbought equities. The region has started to see some profit taking following a spell of foreign inflows into Asia in the wake of renewed dollar weakness and strong regional currencies, including those of Southeast Asia.
Turnover for most sharemarkets was around their 30-day averages, including Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Most bourses fared worse on the week, with Malaysia at just 0.14 percent and Indonesia at 0.9 percent. "We're holding out remarkably well despite unfavourable world markets from Japan's crisis to unrest in the Middle East and North Africa," said a Singapore-based equities trader.
Southeast Asian bourses marked new highs this week, with Thai stocks setting their fresh 14-1/2 year peak and most others at new multi-month highs. Technical signs for most Southeast Asian stock indexes still pointed to more profit taking, with 14-day relative strength index (RSI) of stocks in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines all at overbought lines of 71.5, 70.9 and 76.2, respectively.
Asian shares rose when it became apparent that a strong aftershock that struck Japan's earthquake-ravaged north-east late on Thursday had not caused major damage. MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.44 percent by 0929 GMT. Higher oil prices helped lure buyers to selectively pick resource-related stocks on Friday. Thai largest integrated aromatics refinery PTT Aromatics and Refining climbed almost 2 percent to its highest in more than three years.
Singapore's Keppel Corp, the world's largest oil rig builder, gained 0.3 percent and Philippine energy producer Aboitiz Power Corp advanced 1.3 percent. In Jakarta, the market reported inflows of $1.7 billion on Friday, Thomson Reuters data showed, which dealers said involved big lots of shares in Berau Coal Energy. The Philippines took in $282 million inflows for the week, according to Thomson Reuters data, while Thailand racked up $359 million inflows for the week, the exchange said.
Banks, among rallying shares this week, eased off. Thai fourth largest lender Siam Commercial Bank dropped 1.3 percent, climbing to a 14-year high at one point, and Malaysia's AMMB Holdings lost 1.4 percent, coming off two-month highs.
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