Most Southeast Asian stock markets slumped on Thursday, following a tech rout on Wall Street that saw the year's gains being wiped out, leaving investors poorer by billions of dollars across global markets. Disappointing forecasts from chipmakers beat down the tech sector, sending investors scurrying to the safety of sovereign bonds, pushing Wall Street to its worst single-day fall since 2011.
A concoction of other negative factors like Saudi Arabia's diplomatic tensions, fears of slowing global growth and the Brexit stalemate spooked investors, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropping about 2 percent.
Vietnamese stocks dived as much as 4 percent to an over three-month low and were on track for a sixth straight day in the red. Financial and real-estate stocks bore the brunt of the beating, with lender Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam losing 2.7 percent and Vingroup JSC shedding 2.3 percent.
Philippine shares fell 2.3 percent, dragged by banking and industrial stocks, pushing the index's loss this week to 2.6 percent. "About 45 minutes into trading, net foreign selling has already reached over 100 million pesos. After last night's bloody session on Wall Street, as expected foreigners are stepping up selling of Philippine shares, while local investors are staying on the sidelines," said Fio Dejesus, a research analyst at RCBC Securities.
Banking giant BDO Unibank Inc shed 3.6 percent and industrial conglomerate SM Investments Corp fell 2.7 percent. Singapore stocks saw the same dismal sentiment, giving up the previous day's short-lived gains to take weekly losses to over 2 percent.
Casino and gaming operator Genting Singapore Ltd fell 3.3 percent and investor Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) Ltd lost 1.7 percent. Malaysian shares followed the same trajectory, shedding 0.8 percent, on track to post their sixth straight session of losses. Plantation and industrial heavyweight Sime Darby Berhad lost 5.9 percent and oil and gas services provider Dialog Group Berhad fell 3.9 percent.