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Southeast Asia stocks up on inflows
Southeast Asian stock markets rose today on hopes about stimulus in China and foreign inflows into the region, with the Thai benchmark climbing to a near-two-week high after late buying in large-caps.
A bout of buying via block trades in index heavyweights such as Siam Commercial Bank, Advanced Info Service and PTT Exploration and Productions sent the SET index 1% higher to close at 1,368.90.
Institutional investors were more active as part of their “window dressing” activities but the market was keeping a watch on domestic political developments, said analyst Koraphat Vorachet at broker Nomura Pattanasin.
“High stock valuations could limit room for more strong gains from this point. With the current political risk, the index could see technical-led selling around the 1,380 level,” he said.
Thai shares ended up 0.6% on the week, recouping most of their falls in the previous week.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was among the out performers in the region, ending 3.2% higher on the week, on buying in battered property shares such as Hongkong Land Holdings and City Developments.
Malaysia reported a net foreign buying of 272 million ringgit (US$82.64 million), Indonesia saw inflows worth a net 1.27 trillion rupiah (US$111.30 million) and the Philippines posted 1.14 billion pesos (US$25.3 million) of inflows, according to Thomson Reuters and stock exchange data.
Asian markets gained today, with MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.8% helped by reports Beijing would fast-track infrastructure spending.
China’s Premier Li Keqiang sought to reassure jittery global investors that Beijing was ready to support the cooling economy, saying the government had the necessary policies in place and would push ahead with infrastructure investment.