SE Asia Stocks-Thai up on solid buying; Vietnam erases gains
HANOI, April 18 (Reuters) - Shares in Thailand rose on
Friday morning, extending gains of the previous two sessions on
strong fund inflows from both foreign and domestic investors,
while the Vietnam market retreated on widespread offloading of
shares.
Bangkok's SET Index edged up 0.27 percent to a
five-month intraday high on Friday, after climbing a combined
1.4 percent over the previous two sessions, Reuters data showed.
"We see increasing demand for risky assets such as stocks in
emerging markets," Krungsri Securities said in a note to clients
on Friday, citing positive indications by the U.S. Federal
Reserve on the country's economic recovery and improvement in
the job market.
"Another potential market driver will be speculative trading
during 1Q14 earnings season," Krungsri added.
Top gainers in the Thai market included telecom firm
Advanced Info Service Pcl which rose 0.84 percent
and Siam Commercial Bank Pcl that climbed 0.92 percent.
Foreign investors net bought Thai shares worth 1.73 billion
baht ($53.77 million) on Thursday.
Malaysia's benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index
also inched up 0.06 percent.
However, Vietnam stocks dropped 0.92 percent in the
morning session, erasing almost all of Thursday's gains as
investors offloaded shares with high price-to-earning ratios.
Markets in Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore were
closed for a holiday and will reopen on Monday.
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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS
Change at 0521 GMT
Market Current Prev Close Pct Move
TR SE Asia Index* 421.43 421.55 -0.03
Kuala Lumpur 1851.65 1850.54 +0.06
Bangkok 1412.57 1408.78 +0.27
Ho Chi Minh 574.96 580.31 -0.92
* The Thomson Reuters South East Asia Index is a
highly representative indicator of stocks listed in Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
($1 = 32.1750 Thai Baht)
(Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)
