SE Asia Stocks-Most fall; Singapore's Olam rises after Temasek offer

BANGKOK, March 14 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stocks were

mostly weaker on Friday as investors cut riskier holdings amid

fears of heightened tensions in Ukraine, but Singapore's Olam

International jumped after a Temasek Holdings-led

shareholders group offered to buy all of its shares.

Shares of commodity trading firm Olam were up 11.3 percent,

the top percentage gainer on Singapore's benchmark Straits Times

Index, which was down 0.5 percent.

The index is set to decline 2.2 percent on the week, its

first fall in five weeks and underperforming regional peers.

Across exchanges, players appeared content to stay on the

sidelines and took profits ahead of the weekend, amid concerns

about a slowdown in China after weaker-than-expected industrial

output growth and retail sales data.

Indonesia's main index was down 0.8 percent at the

midday trading break, erasing most of its gain so far on the

week. The Philippine index eased 0.9 percent, on track

for a weekly loss of 1.6 percent after four weeks of gains.

The Thai SET index was down 0.4 percent at midday,

trimming its gain on the week to 0.7 percent. The Bank of

Thailand's interest rate cut and a possible removal of the

emergency decree bolstered Thai market sentiment this week.

"The optimism about the Emergency Decree lift appears to set

the positive tone to the trading sentiment in the near term

while macroeconomy turns in uncertainty," strategists at broker

Phillip Securities wrote in a report.

Shares of telecoms firm True Corporation eased 0.7

percent. It rose to a seven-week high on Thursday after foreign

investors bought the stock via a block trade worth a net 2.4

billion baht ($74.34 million).

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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS

Change at 0715 GMT

Market Current Prev Close Pct Move

TR SE Asia Index* 400.73 403.71 -0.74

Singapore 3066.92 3081.39 -0.47

Kuala Lumpur 1809.18 1818.86 -0.53

Bangkok 1364.58 1370.50 -0.43

Jakarta 4690.53 4726.17 -0.75

Manila 6377.86 6429.79 -0.81

Ho Chi Minh 596.05 595.22 +0.14

* The Thomson Reuters South East Asia Index is a

highly representative indicator of stocks listed in Indonesia,

Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.