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Wednesday May 14, 6:40 PMSE Asian Stocks-Mostly up on strong earnings, Vietnam fallsSINGAPORE, May 14 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Wednesday, as strong sales and earnings pushed up firms such as cement maker PT Holcim Indonesia Tbk and Malaysian lender AMMB Holdings .Malaysian stocks rose 0.09 percent and Thailand gained 1.15 percent while Philippine stocks edged up 0.46 percent to over a three-week high. Indonesian shares gained 1.26 percent to the highest in six weeks, though Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.15 percent and Vietnamese stocks fell for the eighth straight session. "There is still pressure in the stock markets and authorities are still dealing with long term inflation. But many companies are still generating huge amounts of growth, especially those companies that are underleveraged in Asia," said David Roes, chief executive officer at Asean Investment Advisers Management. Singapore Airlines , the world's second-largest carrier by market value, rose as much as 1.8 percent but pared gains to close 0.1 percent up after a smaller-than-expected fall in its fourth-quarter profit. Analysts expect high fuel costs to affect SIA's earnings. [ID:nSIN4925] Southeast Asia's largest phone company Singapore Telecommunications fell 0.5 percent despite the firm beating market forecasts with a 9 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit [ID:nSP36997] In Malaysia, AMMB Holdings , the country's fifth-largest lender, rose 3.1 percent after it reported a net profit of 217.5 million ringgit. The bank posted a loss a year ago. Palm oil firms IOI Corp and Sime Darby rebounded to post gains after palm oil prices rose, boosted by strong oil prices and tight global supplies. Sime Darby gained 0.5 percent and IOI Corp rose 1.4 percent to a two-week high. Thailand's largest energy company PTT PCL rose 1.8 percent and its unit PTT Exploration and Production gained 2.7 percent ahead of financial results to be announced later on Wednesday. Analysts expect the state-controlled firm to report a 10 percent rise in quarterly profit due to strong gas sales and profits from its petrochemical business. "We believe that buoyant oil prices, strong volume growth, and attractive valuations should be enough for PTT's shares to get out of their five-month slump," Citigroup analyst Nithi Wanikpun said in a client note. In Indonesia, PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk rose 7.4 percent and PT Holcim Indonesia Tbk jumped 19.2 percent after the two cement makers recorded strong sales in April. Analysts expect demand for cement to remain strong with the government pressing for construction of some key infrastructure projects to boost economic growth. The Philippines' biggest property developer Ayala Land rose 4.9 percent to its highest in a month while PLDT , the country's largest listed firm, rose 1.1 percent. The Ho Chi Minh stock exchange fell 1.74 percent to its lowest since Aug 2006 due to high inflation and loss of investor confidence. "Foreign investors were stagnant, neither selling nor buying," said Bui Ngoc Long, Marketing Director at International Royal Securities. "Investors, especially foreign investors, are not supportive of administrative intervention as they are not able to predict and control consequences." (Additional reporting by the Hanoi bureau, editing by Neil Chatterjee) |
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