BANGKOK, April 17 — Most Southeast Asian stock markets were range bound today, with overbought Singapore shares heading for a second straight day of fall, while buying in laggard energy shares helped bring Thai benchmark to the highest in almost seven weeks.
Asian shares edged up in early trade, shrugging off a languid performance on Wall Street after another set of lacklustre US economic data.
In Singapore, the key Straits Times Index was down 0.3 per cent, further pulling away from a more than seven-year high hit on April 15.
The index’s 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) was at 72.15, hovering in an overbought level of 70 or above for five straight day.
Sentiment would be slightly cautious after Wall Street’s overnight pullback, Singapore-based NRA Capital said.
“There could be some tempted to take profit ahead of the weekend though there seems to be more optimism that stock prices are more unlikely to be crashing with a more progressive drop instead if sentiment changes,” the broker said in a report.
Profit taking hit most markets in Southeast Asia but hopes that the interest rate hike in the United States could be imposed later than June lent support, said brokers in the region.
Bangkok‘s SET index was up 0.10 per cent, climbing at one point to 1,575.09, the highest since March 3. Shares of top energy firm PTT gained almost 2 per cent after a 6.3 per cent jump on the previous day.
PTT traded at an earnings multiple of 11.15 times, well below the SET’s 16.74 times, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
Thai SET was on track for a weekly gain of 1.5 per cent, its third and trailing Vietnam‘s 3 per cent. Singapore and Malaysia were poised for a fifth straight weekly gain, adding 1.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Indonesia looked set to end the week 1.3 per cent lower, with the Philippines down 2.3 per cent, hammered by selling in large caps which led the index to a record closing high of 8,127.48 in the previous week. — Reuters
