SE Asia Stocks-Rise tracking Wall St, oil; S'pore up 1 pct
By Nicole Pinto
June 29 (Reuters) - Most southeast Asian stock markets rose on Thursday,
tracking gains in their broader Asian peers and Wall Street, as steadying oil
prices underpinned, with Singapore advancing more than 1 percent.
Wall Street stocks rose sharply on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500
index scoring its biggest one-day percentage gain in about two months, as
financial and technology shares led a broad market rebound.
Crude oil prices rose for a sixth straight session to its highest since June
19 on a decline in U.S. output, but ongoing worries about global oversupply
continued to drag.
"Last week, there was concern with lower-than-expected inventories and so
forth. Now that oil prices have stabilized, the market is reacting positively,"
said Victor Felix, an equity analyst with AB Capital Securities.
Singapore shares advanced more than other markets in the region in
percentage terms, rising as much as 1.1 percent to post their biggest intraday
percentage gain since May 2.
The financial sector lifted the index, with DBS Group Holdings,
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and United Overseas Bank
posting gains in the range of 1.4 percent to 2.1 percent.
Thai shares rose 0.3 percent, with Airports of Thailand up
1.6 percent and Siam Commercial bank rising 1 percent.
Vietnam shares gained 0.4 percent, pushed up by financial stocks.
Bucking the trend, Philippine shares fell 0.3 percent, dragged by SM
Prime Holdings and International Container Terminal Services
which slid 1.7 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.
"For the past two months we had seen steady net foreign buying; it pushed
our market up from 7,500 to the 8,000 level. Now we are seeing some selling
pressure from foreign investors possibly because of high valuations. Another
reason may be geo-political instability," Felix added.
"The Philippine peso is weakening against the dollar. That is also putting
pressure on equities."
The peso has been one of the worst performing emerging Asian currencies this
year, weakening more than 1 percent against the dollar year-to-date.
Indonesia's financial markets were closed on account of a national
holiday.
For Asian Companies click;
SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS: Change at 0528 GMT
Change on the
day
Market Current Previous Pct Move
Close
Singapore 3250.48 3215.7 1.08
Bangkok 1586.67 1582.63 0.26
Manila 7830.6 7857.18 -0.34
Kuala Lumpur 1771.52 1771.23 0.02
Ho Chi Minh 772.45 769.04 0.44
Change so far
this year
Market Current End 2016 Pct Move
Singapore 3250.48 2880.76 12.83
Bangkok 1586.67 1542.94 2.83
Manila 7830.6 6840.64 14.47
Kuala Lumpur 1771.52 1641.73 7.91
Ho Chi Minh 772.45 664.87 16.18
(Reporting by Nicole Pinto in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)
