Philippine shares on Thursday recouped previous session's losses to end higher as industrials and financials rallied, while Indonesia closed lower after the much-watched first round election for Jakarta governor produced no clear outcome.
Unofficial sample vote counts pointed to a second round between the incumbent Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and Anies Baswedan, a former education minister, after neither appeared to win a majority in Wednesday's election.
The General Elections Commission is expected to announce official results in around two weeks, and the earliest a second round will be held is April.
The Jakarta SE Composite index ended the session 0.1 percent lower, dragged down mainly by financial stocks.
PT Bank Mandiri Tbk fell 2 percent to close at its lowest level in nearly two weeks. The biggest Indonesian bank by assets reported a 32 percent drop in its 2016 net profit on Tuesday. Trading volumes were nearly thrice the 30-day average.
Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk PT fell 1.6 percent in heavy trade.
Philippine shares closed 1.5 percent higher. The index had fallen significantly in the last two trading sessions.
"We are the outlier in the region, but again it's a technical rebound," said Victor Felix, equity analyst at AB Capital Securities.
"There is a lack of catalysts right now starting end of this month or beginning of next month we should see a downtrend coming up to the (US Federal Reserve) meeting."
Conglomerate SM Investments Corp gained 2.9 percent, while JG Summit Holdings Inc rose 3.8 percent to its highest close since January 30.
Singapore index extended gains to close 0.3 percent higher, boosted by financials and industrials.
Top lender DBS Group Holdings Ltd gained 1.7 percent despite posting its lowest quarterly profit in two years.
Thai Beverage PCL extended gains to rise 2.1 percent to its highest close in three months.
Vietnam stocks snapped four sessions of gains to close 0.3 percent lower, off from the nine-year high hit earlier in the session.
Banks, which led the previous session's rally, were the biggest drags on the index. Vietcombank fell 1 percent to its lowest close in more than three weeks.
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