Most Southeast Asian stock markets pushed higher on Wednesday amid good demand for shares with high dividend yields but concern about the negative spillover of the slowdown in the United States and Europe kept risk appetite in check. Share markets face choppy trading this week as growing global uncertainties, with the risk of a US recession increasing, eat into confidence, especially as investors are getting less optimistic about growth in the emerging region.
On Wednesday, however, Thai stocks gained 1.5 percent as investors bought stocks with higher-than-expected quarterly results and strong dividend payouts. Vietnam climbed 1.8 percent and Malaysia was up 0.32 percent. Stocks in the Philippines fell 0.7 percent, ending five days of gains even though Asia's fourth-best performer this year took in $25.8 million in foreign money, recouping some of the $47 million that flowed out over those five sessions, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Singapore erased early gains to end 0.2 percent lower. Singapore, one of Asia's most trade-dependent economies, has been more affected by the slowdown in US and Europe. Its non-oil domestic exports fell unexpectedly in July, raising the odds of it sinking into recession.
Indonesia was shut on Wednesday. By 0950 GMT, MSCI's world equity index fell 0.1 percent, having hit a 1-1/2-week high on Tuesday. Among actively traded stocks with high dividend payouts, Thailand's biggest energy firm, PTT, climbed almost 3 percent and Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals Group gained 1.2 percent. A bright spot in Singapore was CapitaLan, Southeast Asia's largest property developer, which rose 0.8 percent after it said it bought a residential site in Hangzhou, China, for about S$213 million ($177.3 million), traders said.
Comments
Comments are closed.