BANGKOK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Thursday as hopes for a rescue plan for debt-stricken Greece revived buying interest, leaving Singapore in positive terrain and ending a five-day losing streak in Indonesia.
Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.7 percent, erasing the previous session's loss, with good buying interest in commodity stocks such as Noble Group, up 2.1 percent, and Olam International, up 2.6 percent.
Tracking global stocks, Singapore found some relief from potential European Union aid for Greece, although market volume was generally low ahead of the Lunar New Year festival.
'The market direction still depends on the EU's bail-out plan for Greece. If it's good, it will be a positive sign for the market. Investors expect to know the plan by this week,' said a Singapore-based analyst.
European Union leaders are expected to reach political agreement at a summit on Thursday to help Greece, with details to be hammered out at a finance ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, a senior EU source told Reuters.
Among outperformers, CapitaLand jumped nearly 3 percent after Southeast Asia's biggest developer said it had the war chest to buy more assets after posting an elevenfold rise in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by a massive one-off gain.
Malaysia and Thailand rose for a second day, adding 0.26 percent and 1.02 percent respectively. Indonesia ended a five-day drop to climb 1 percent on the session.
In Kuala Lumpur, Axiata Group rose 2.1 percent and Maxix gained 0.6 percent.
In Bangkok, the SET index hit its highest in a week after the Thai consumer confidence index climbed to a 21-month high in January.
PTT rose 2.3 percent as optimism about petrochemical and refinery earnings outweighed concern about a delay to its consolidation plan due to a Thai industrial estate dispute.
PTT Chemical jumped 4 percent after the largest olefins maker said it planned to resume operations at a big plant within a week if no major damage were found following power problems that caused a shutdown.
Among gainers in Jakarta, Telkom Indonesia was up 2.3 percent and Unilever Indonesia jumped 3.7 percent.
In Manila, the main index gained 1.8 percent, with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp jumping 3.03 percent after the Philippines' fourth largest publicly listed bank in terms of assets reported 2009 net profit rose by half from 2008.
Bank of the Philippine Islands rose 3.6 percent and Manila Electric was up 3.7 percent.
'We went with Asian markets and ignored what happened with the Dow last night,' said Jun Calaycay, an analyst at Accord Capital Equities. 'We also saw some bargain-hunting as investors started to make bets on index component issues.'
Hanoi rose almost 2 percent on buying of blue chips in low volume, with Saigon Fuel and Southern Rubber Industry among big gainers, each rising about five percent.
($1=33.15 Baht)
(Additional reporting by Alex McCaskill in Manila and Pham Thi Minh Hien in Hanoi; Editing by Alan Raybould)
((viparat.jantraprapaweth@thomsonreuters.com; +66 2 648 9733; Reuters Messaging: viparat.jantraprapaweth.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) FACTORS TO WATCH: DMG lowers Tiong Woon's target price Genting Singapore to soft open casino on Feb 14 CapitaLand Q4 net profit up11-fold,outlook bullish Thai consumer confidence at 21-month high in Jan Thai PTT postpones group merger plan to end-2010 For South East Asia Hot Stock reports, click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS Change on the day Market Current Prev Close Pct Move Singapore 2753.63 2734.39 +0.70 Kuala Lumpur 1249.42 1246.17 +0.26 Bangkok 695.41 688.41 +1.02 Jakarta 2507.75 2483.45 +0.98 Manila 2908.88 2857.24 +1.81 Ho Chi Minh 499.94 490.91 +1.84 Change on year Market Current End prev yr Pct Move Singapore 2753.63 2897.62 -4.97 Kuala Lumpur 1249.42 1272.78 -1.84 Bangkok 695.41 734.54 -5.33 Jakarta 2507.75 2534.36 -1.05 Manila 2908.88 3052.68 -4.71 Ho Chi Minh 499.94 494.77 +1.04 Stock Market Volume (shares) Market Current Volume Average Volume 90 days Singapore 302,865,700 322,235,143 Kuala Lumpur 86,269,800 89,749,484 Bangkok 1,459,589 3,179,738 Jakarta 4,091,696,000 4,005,459,289 Ho Chi Minh 21,908 53,807 ASIA-PACIFIC STOCK MARKETS: Pan-Asia........ Japan....... S.Korea... S.E. Asia....... Hong Kong... Taiwan.... Australia/NZ.... India....... China..... OTHER MARKETS: Wall Street.... Gold ....... Currency.. Eurostocks..... Oil ........ JP bonds... ADR Report ..... LME metals. US bonds.. Stocks News US.. Stocks News Europe DIARIES & DATA: IPO diary & data Asia earnings diary U.S. earnings diary European diary Singapore diary Wall Street Week Ahead Eurostocks Week Ahead TOP NEWS: For top Asian company news, double click on: U.S. company news European company news Forex news Global Economy news Banking news Tech,Media,Telecoms Politics/General news Asia Macro data A multimedia version of Reuters Top News is available at: http://topnews.session.rservices.com LIVE PRICES & DATA: World Stocks Currency rates Dow Jones/NASDAQ Nikkei FTSE 100 Debt (Local currency) LME price overview Keywords: MARKETS SOUTHEASTASIA STOCKS/ (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
© 2010 AFX News
