Comments
Most Southeast Asian stock markets retreated on Monday with the Philippine index coming off a record high hit on Friday and Indonesia snapping recent gains as selling in recent outperformers amid weak sentiment in Asia overshadowed selective buying in a reporting season.
Asian investors caught up with a benign payrolls report and the subsequent slide in Treasury yields, while oil prices showed no sign of escaping their downward spiral.
The Philippine composite index was down 0.6 per cent at 7,358.36 after a tenth straight gain on Friday to an all-time closing high of 7,402.72.
Investors cashed in recent gainers such as the shares of Metropolitan Bank & Trust.
Indonesia’s main index was down 0.5 per cent after almost 1 per cent gain in three sessions to Friday.
Earnings announcement
Banks were mixed ahead of earnings announcement, with Bank Rakyat Indonesia sliding 2.3 per cent and Bank Negara Indonesia erasing early losses.
“Market has begun taking positions ahead of results which will start with banks. BBNI is so far scheduled to be the first to announce results and we expect BBNI’s FY2014 to beat consensus by 5 per cent,’’ said broker Trimegah Securities.
In Bangkok, shares in TMB Bank jumped 2.1 per cent, helping bring the main SET index 0.4 per cent higher, recovering from early losses.
Broker DBS Vickers Securities said TMB Bank was its top pick of mid-size bank thanks to the prospect for strong earnings growth. The broker expected TMB Bank to report a 29 per cent earnings growth for October-December quarter.
Thai banks are due to report the quarterly results from this week.
Broker KGI Securities has upgraded the ratings on big banks, including Kasikornbank and Krung Thai Bank, citing positive fundamentals in 2015. It said the broader market awaited the European Central Bank’s meeting late next week.
“The SET is likely to be able to recover fast as investors continue to brace for the ECB to announce sovereign bond purchasing at its meeting on January 22,’’ it said in a report.
In Singapore, the key index was little changed, with shares of COSCO Corporation (Singapore) Ltd dropping as much as 10 per cent after the company’s profit warning.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.