SE Asia Stocks-Largely down; Philippines continues to slip

By Sandhya Sampath

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets ended

lower on Friday tracking broader Asia, led by the Philippines,

which fell for the seventh consecutive session, erasing some of

its earlier losses in the latter half of the day.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's ongoing rants against

the United States have weighed on investor sentiment for more

than a week, with the Philippine index posting a weekly loss of

3.2 percent.

Investors continue to be cautious about Duterte's foreign

policy after weeks of verbal attacks on the United States,

including threats to end military agreements, and his apparent

overtures towards China.

"The president has been going on a lot of business trips

which is adding on to the investor confidence, but his negative

comments against the U.S. adds to the political noise. Maybe

that is also spurring net foreign selling in our market," said

Victor Felix, an analyst with Manila-based AB Capital

Securities.

Philippine shares fell as much as 1.7 percent earlier

and closed 0.5 percent lower, dragged down by financials and

consumer cyclicals, with conglomerates SM Prime Holdings Inc

and SM Investments Corp losing 0.7 percent and

1.2 percent respectively.

Philippine stock markets will be closed on Monday and

Tuesday for special non-working holidays.

"Lot of investors are closing positions ahead of the long

weekend," Felix said.

The Singapore index lost 0.5 percent on the day and

the week. DBS Group Holdings Ltd was the biggest

decliner in the financial sector, just ahead of its

third-quarter results, due next week.

Thai shares closed 0.3 percent lower, pulled down by

the energy sector, with the country's top energy firm PTT PCL

closing 0.6 percent lower, on weak oil prices. The

index lost 0.5 percent this week.

Indonesia closed 0.1 percent lower, but Vietnam

ended with a gain of 0.8 percent.

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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS

Change at 0957 GMT

Market Current Previous Close Pct Move

Singapore 2816.26 2828.94 -0.45

Bangkok 1494.44 1498.36 -0.26

Manila 7404.8 7445.14 -0.54

Jakarta 5410.269 5416.836 -0.12

Kuala Lumpur 1670.27 1669.03 0.07

Ho Chi Minh 682.25 676.9 0.79

Change on year

Market Current End prev yr Pct Move

Singapore 2816.26 2882.73 -2.31

Bangkok 1494.44 1288.02 16.03

Manila 7404.8 6952.08 6.51

Jakarta 5410.269 4593.008 17.79

Kuala Lumpur 1670.27 1692.51 -1.31

Ho Chi Minh 682.25 579.03 17.83

(Reporting by Sandhya Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha

Gayathri)