Most Southeast Asian stock markets fell on Friday amid regional weakness, with Thailand posting its biggest drop in two weeks as banking stocks declined on disappointing results. Thailand's SET Index dropped 0.9 percent, its biggest single-day percentage decline since April 7. Krung Thai Bank, Thailand's second-largest lender, lost 2.3 percent, while rival Siam Commercial Bank PCL fell nearly 3 percent after reporting a drop in first-quarter profit and an increase in bad loans.
Analysts are already worried about the market's valuations. "Current valuations, above 15x forward PE and above the 18x current PE, look stretched," Rakpong Chaisuparakul, an equity strategist at KGI Thailand, said in a note. Singapore's Straits Times Index ended 0.7 percent lower, after closing at its highest level in five months in the previous session. Offshore oil rig company Keppel Corp Ltd was among the biggest losers with a fall of 5 percent.
Suntec REIT was down 0.9 percent after the company reported a marginal increase in its first-quarter profit in the previous session and OCBC Investment Research downgraded it to "sell", saying valuation appeared stretched. Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index reversed its earlier losses, gaining 0.2 percent for the day, led by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia after the company posted a 20 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit. Meanwhile, Vietnam stocks surged 2.9 percent.
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