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Most Southeast Asian stock markets rebounded on Tuesday as bargain-hunting emerged in battered large caps, but Thai shares were headed for a second session of decline, a day before the central bank’s interest rate meeting.
The Thai SET index was down 0.5 per cent, with banking shares sliding 0.9 per cent.
Monetary policy easing
Investors were broadly cautious about a possible monetary policy easing by the Bank of Thailand, according to local brokers.
“Traders are waiting for the Thai MPC’s decision tomorrow on whether it will cut policy interest rate,’’ strategists at broker KGI Securities wrote in a report.
Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday that Thailand should not rush to cut interest rates, backing market expectations that the central bank will leave policy unchanged at Wednesday’s meeting.
Singapore’s key Straits Times Index was nearly flat, with the shares of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp recovering from Monday’s loss and rising 0.6 per cent.
Shares of Malaysia-listed Public Bank inched up 0.1 per cent, recovering from a more than one-week low hit in the previous session.
Indonesia-listed Bank Mandiri’s shares jumped 2 per cent, coming off Monday’s near three-week closing low.
Asian stocks declined, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.8 per cent amid speculation the US Federal Reserve would start lifting interest rates from mid-year.
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