Southeast Asia Stocks: Mixed, Thai Shares Trim Losses

BANGKOK: Thai stocks posted modest losses on Friday as some large caps, including PTT and Krung Thai Bank regained early lost ground, while Indonesian shares ended at their highest in one week, helped by inflows and a rise in the rupiah.
    The Thai SET index eased 0.22 percent, with a 2.5
percent gain on the week, its first in three. It fell 1.4
percent at one point, as investors remained wary of domestic
political tensions ahead of a major anti-government protest on
Monday.
    Foreign investors were net sellers of 1.1 billion baht
($33.3 million), trimming their net buying on the week to $73
million, Thomson Reuters data showed. 
    Jakarta's Composite Index climbed 1.3 percent to
4,254.97, the highest close since Jan. 3, erasing its weekly
loss to 0.06 percent. Banking shares were actively traded, with
shares of Bank Mandiri up almost 6 percent. 
    Jakarta brought in net inflows of $7.92 million on the day,
while the rupiah edged up 0.25 percent on Friday.
 
    Others in the region ended mixed ahead of Friday's U.S.
nonfarm payrolls report. Payrolls are forecast to have risen by
a solid 196,000 in December, according to a Reuters survey of
economists, just below November's count of 203,000. 
    Singapore was down 0.05 percent on the day, while
rising 0.4 percent on the week. Malaysia eased 0.09
percent on the day and was down 0.4 percent on the week. The
Philippines dropped 1.6 percent on the day, taking its
weekly loss to 1.8 percent.
    Vietnam's benchmark VN Index gained 0.38 percent, and
was the region's outperformer with a weekly gain of 2.7 percent.
 
    
SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS
 Change on day
 Market             Current     Prev Close    Pct Move
 TR SE Asia Index*   381.45        381.27       +0.05
 Singapore          3143.87       3145.41       -0.05
 Kuala Lumpur       1826.61       1828.21       -0.09
 Bangkok            1255.45       1258.26       -0.22
 Jakarta            4254.97       4201.22       +1.28
 Manila             5842.88       5937.51       -1.59
 Ho Chi Minh         518.94        516.98       +0.38
 
 Change on year
 Market             Current       End 2013    Pct Move
 TR SE Asia Index*   381.45        388.37       -1.78
 Singapore          3143.87       3167.43       -0.74
 Kuala Lumpur       1826.61       1866.96       -2.16
 Bangkok            1255.45       1298.71       -3.33
 Jakarta            4254.97       4274.18       -0.45
 Manila             5842.88       5889.83       -0.80
 Ho Chi Minh         518.94        504.63       +2.84
 
* The Thomson Reuters South East Asia Index is a
highly representative indicator of stocks listed in Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
    
 Stock Market Volume (shares)
 Market          Current Volume    Average Volume 30 days
 Singapore         185,160,800          179,644,990      
 Kuala Lumpur      114,671,400          102,383,417      
 
 Bangkok             4,277,621            5,091,586      
 Jakarta         2,963,737,800        2,861,703,257    
 Manila                 38,649               67,630    

 Ho Chi Minh           107,180               85,701 - Reuters