Most Southeast Asian stock markets rebounded on Tuesday, with the Thai key index posting its best gain in three-and-a-half months on rallying telecoms shares while late buying in large caps helped the Indonesian benchmark snap a two-day losing streak. Thailand's SET index rose 2.6 percent, the biggest single-day percentage gain since August 27.
Investors bought telecoms shares amid an auction of fourth generation licences on Tuesday. Shares of Advanced Info Service surged 10.8 percent, the top mover on the MSCI Thailand index on expectations it would be among winning bidders. The SET outlook remained bearish due to weak economic recovery and relatively stretched valuations, according to BMI Research. The index trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17 times versus 14.6 times of the MSCI index of Southeast Asia, it said.
The Jakarta composite index rose 0.8 percent. Foreign inflows lifted large caps such as Astra International and Telkom Indonesia. Stocks in Singapore ended little changed, in line with Asian stocks ahead of a widely anticipated increase in US interest rates later in the week. Malaysia and the Philippines retreated amid net foreign selling of 218 million ringgit ($50.70 million) and 446 million peso ($9.42 million), respectively, stock exchange data showed. Vietnam hit a one-week closing high. The country released late in the day a better-than-expected trade balance for November.