Stock markets in Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines suffered their worst drop in more than four months on Thursday, as trade in Chinese shares was halted following a sell-off, while weak oil prices put pressure on energy stocks. Singapore's Straits Times Index, Thailand's benchmark SET index and the Philippine composite index finished down almost 3 percent each, their biggest single-day fall since August 24.
Trading volume in Singapore was 2.2 times the 30-day average. The heavy sell-off was partly due to stock sales programmes by proprietary funds and hedge funds, an equities dealer in Singapore said. The Thai bourse said foreign investors sold shares worth a net 1.5 billion baht ($41.35 million), a fourth straight session of sales this year.
The Thai baht hit its weakest since October 6 amiid continuous foreign selling Bank of Thailand assistant governor Chantavarn Sucharitakul said the weakening baht was largely in line with the trend in regional currencies, and there were no signs of panic in the market. Among the worst-hit energy shares, Thai PTT Exploration and Production plunged 10 percent, Philippine Energy Development Corp shed 7.4 percent and Malaysia's Sapurakencana Petroleum dropped 7.3 percent.
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