SE Asia Stocks-Indonesia sets record; S'pore, Philippines buoyant

By Karthika Suresh Namboothiri

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets soared

on Friday, with Indonesia setting a record a day after its

central bank held key policy rate unchanged, while Singapore and

the Philippines posted strong gains on the back of upbeat

regional economic data.

Asian shares also drew support from Wall Street, which rose

sharply overnight after a broad package of tax cuts sought by

President Donald Trump passed its first hurdle.

"There was a positive handover from the U.S. markets. The

U.S. House of Representatives passed the tax reform bill. So

that is one hurdle down," said Joel Ng, an analyst from

Singapore-based KGI Securities.

Indonesian shares rose as much as 0.8 percent, with

the index of the 45 most liquid stocks surging 1.1

percent to a record high.

Indonesia's central bank on Thursday kept its key policy

rate unchanged, as expected and in line with a goal of

maintaining financial stability at a time the market anticipates

a U.S. interest rate hike next month.

Singapore shares climbed as much as 1.1 percent in

their biggest intraday gain since Oct. 2, and were on track to

snap five sessions of losses.

The city-state's non-oil domestic exports in October rose at

a much stronger pace than expected as both electronics and

non-electronic sectors expanded, data showed, underpinning the

market sentiment.

"I think the past two days were mainly due to profit-taking

going to the year-end. So, it was the fundamentals from

Singapore that gave a more optimistic outlook for equities,"

said Joel Ng.

Financials boosted the index, with lender DBS Group Holdings

up as much as 1.6 percent, and Oversea-Chinese Banking

Corp climbing 1.7 percent.

Malaysian stocks edged 0.2 percent higher, after

five consecutive sessions of declines, as investors cheered data

that showed the economy expanded 6.2 percent annually in the

third quarter, recording its highest quarterly growth in more

than three years.

Lender CIMB Group Holdings inched 1.4 percent

higher, while conglomerate Genting Berhad was up 1.4

percent.

The Philippine index climbed more than 1 percent, owing to

gains in real estate and industrial stocks.

Property developer SM Prime Holdings was up 2

percent, while Ayala Land jumped 2.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Vietnam inched down 0.1 percent, trimming

earlier gains that lifted the index to a fresh near-decade high.

For Asian Companies click;

SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS: CHANGE AT 0453 GMT

Market Current Previous Pct Move

close

Singapore 3371.75 3341.3 0.91

Bangkok 1702.92 1691.25 0.69

Manila 8305.86 8206.44 1.21

Jakarta 6077.927 6037.907 0.66

Kuala Lumpur 1721.95 1718.11 0.22

Ho Chi Minh 891.63 892.8 -0.13

Change on year

Market Current End 2016 Pct Move

Singapore 3371.75 2880.76 17.04

Bangkok 1702.92 1542.94 10.37

Manila 8305.86 6840.64 21.42

Jakarta 6077.927 5296.711 14.75

Kuala Lumpur 1721.95 1641.73 4.89

Ho Chi Minh 891.63 664.87 34.11

(Reporting by Karthika Namboothiri in Bengaluru; Editing by

Amrutha Gayathri)