Southeast Asian stock markets pulled lower on Thursday, led by financials and resource shares, as investors booked quick profits in the face of deteriorating eurozone debt problems. The falls came in light volume, reflecting uncertainty after Greece's prime minister announced a referendum on the eurozone's planned bail-out for the country.
Foreign flows remained mixed and brokers in the region expected the volatility to continue in the near term. Singapore's Straits Times Index and Jakarta's Composite Index, which staged a strong rebound on Wednesday, turned lower, ending down 0.9 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.
Stocks in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines fell to their lowest in more than a week, finishing down 0.9 percent, 0.6 percent and 1.2 percent respectively. "Concerns about Europe and Greece remained the same. Locally, there's only one story here - the whole flooding. So it's very difficult for people to take aggressive buy positions in this market," said Bangkok-based Andrew Yates, head of international equity sales at broker Asia Plus Securities.
Foreign investors had bought Thai shares worth $512 million in seven straight sessions to Tuesday. The Thai market enjoyed $1 billion in inflows in October after $542 million in outflows in September during a sell-off across the region. Indonesia reported $86 million in inflows on Thursday after outflows over three sessions, while the Philippines reported $14.6 million in inflows, similar to Wednesday, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Malaysia posted 85 million ringgit ($27 million) in outflows, erasing 80 million ringgit in inflows on Wednesday, stock exchange data showed. In Singapore, United Overseas Bank Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd were among the losers, sliding 2.6 percent and 1.2 percent respectively, after weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings. Resource-related shares tracked oil prices lower.
Among those actively traded, Thai petrochemical firm PTT Global Chemical Pcl lost 2.1 percent and Indonesia's PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk dropped 3.1 percent. By 1009 GMT, MSCI's Southeast Asia index was down 1.4 percent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was 1.5 percent lower.
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