Philippine shares bounced back from earlier falls on Thursday, snapping two straight sessions of falls on the back of window dressing and bargain-buying, while Indonesian stocks rose 1 percent after three consecutive sessions of declines. The Philippine central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points on Thursday to tame inflation and support the struggling peso.
"There's some amount of traditional quarter-end window dressing which boosted selected blue-chip issues and that helped the market to edge higher," said Manny Cruz, an analyst with Asiasec Equities Inc. Window dressing refers to the practice where portfolio managers try to improve the appearance of a fund's performance near the year- or quarter-end.
Industrial and real estate stocks led the gains with SM Investments Corp and Ayala Land Inc adding 2.9 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Consumer staple and material stocks helped Indonesian equities gain. Indonesia's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, as anticipated, marking its fifth increase since May to keep its financial market stable amid an emerging market selloff.
Unilever Indonesia Tbk was the biggest support, up 2.3 percent, while Gudang Garam climbed 3.1 percent. Vietnam shares posted their highest close in over three months, helped by real estate and consumer staple stocks, while Thailand closed 0.2 percent higher, boosted by financials.
Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank rose 2.4 percent and was the top help to the index. Singapore shares gave up earlier gains and closed lower for the first time in seven sessions.
Financials and industrials were the biggest drags with index heavyweights United Overseas Bank Ltd and Genting Singapore Ltd shedding 1.1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
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