BANGKOK, Jan 8 — Southeast Asian stock markets were trading mixed today, with beaten down Singapore and Thailand staging a mild rebound along with Asian shares but selling by foreign investors in select large caps pushed Indonesia to a more than two-week low.
The Jakarta composite index was down 0.2 per cent at 4,520.68, after earlier touching 4,507.41, the lowest since Dec 23.
Shares of Telkom Indonesia shed two per cent and Semen Indonesia was down 1.1 per cent, with foreign investors net selling both, Thomson Reuters Eikon data showed.
Jakarta-based Trimegah Securities said it expected the index to continue weakening, with today's trading seen in the range of 4,500-4,563.
BNI Securities said it expected pressure to linger from China share markets after Shanghai stocks fell more than seven per cent and triggered a stock market circuit breaker on yesterday.
“With lack of fresh sentiment in the market, it will be hard to keep the index from falling,” it said in a report.
Indonesia was on track for a weekly drop of 1.5 per cent, its first in four weeks, in line with other Southeast Asian stock markets.
Singapore was up 0.7 per cent and Thailand was up 0.9 per cent, both on course for a weekly drop of more than four per cent. The Philippines was down 0.5 per cent, poised for a weekly decline of more than five per cent.
Malaysia was up 0.2 per cent, recouping early losses
while Vietnam was down 0.7 per cent, both set to fall more than two per cent on the week.
Asian shares, measured by MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, rose 0.6 per cent, led by strong gains for Chinese stocks after China suspended its market circuit breaker and set a firmer midpoint rate for trading of the yuan for the first time in nine days. — Reuters
