Southeast Asian markets: Philippines falls on economic, political woes; Indonesia down

Philippine shares fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday on growing economic concerns and as political tensions rose after President Duterte's verbal outburst against the US. In his latest salvo, Duterte said he was realigning his foreign policy because the United States had failed the Philippines, adding that at some point "I will break up with America".
"Increasingly, Duterte has been aligning more and more with China and Russia and less with the West, so that definitely puts a strain on foreign investments, especially in equities," said Victor Felix, an analyst with AB Capital Securities in Manila. Consumer inflation in the Philippines raced to an 18-month high in September as prices of food and utilities rose, while the central bank said more data, including outlook on inflation would be needed before it could adjust its required reserves.
The Philippine index clocked its biggest intra-day percentage loss in more than two weeks, led by a big sell-off in telecom stocks. Indonesian shares shed over 1 percent and posted their biggest intra-day percentage loss in three weeks. "RSI (relative strength index) is showing the index has been overbought, indicating weakness for the JCI (Jakarta Composite Index) in the next 2-3 days," said Gina Nasution, an analyst with Trimegah Securities.
Shares of oil and gas firms Perusahaan Gas Negara (Persero) Tbk PT and Medco Energi Internasional Tbk PT fell after a local media report that President Jokowi is expected to cut gas prices in November. Other Southeast Asian stock markets remained soft following a report that the European Central Bank may taper asset purchases, while investors were also spooked by prospects of a US interest rate hike in the coming months.