Philippine shares scaled their five-month peaks on Wednesday after gains in large caps and foreign fund inflows while shares in political crisis-hit Thailand eked out further gains to a near 1,400 mark helped by selective buying in banking stocks. The Philippine main index closed up 1.1 percent at 6,587.72, the highest since October 30. Shares of Megaworld Corp, Ayala Corp and Univeral Robina Corp were top three percentage gainers on the benchmark.
The exchange posted net inflows for a sixth consecutive session, with foreign investors buying a net 1.4 billion pesos ($31.26 million). The rally came ahead of March inflation data due out on Friday, which analysts said the annual inflation may have quickened slightly in the month and the central bank is expected to take further policy tightening measures, perhaps as early as next month. Thai index rose 0.7 percent, taking its gain in four sessions since March 28 to 3.0 percent. Siam Commercial Bank and Kasikornbank were among the outperformers in part due to hopes about their quarterly earnings results.
Brokers said technical indicators were supportive to the market but political risks remained, denting the growth prospect on the domestic economy and corporate earnings. In Kuala Lumpur, investors bought battered plantation stocks such as PPB Group as palm oil futures rebounded from recent falls. Stocks in Indonesia pared midsession gains while Singapore fell for the first time in six sessions amid selling in rallying telecoms firms Singapore Telecommunications and Telkom Indonesia.