SE Asia Stocks-Most indexes up; Thai shares trim gains amid domestic tensions

BANGKOK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets

mostly gained on Wednesday as investors bought back beaten-down

regional large caps along with positive sentiment in broader

Asia and strong U.S. trade data, with Indonesia trimming early

loss amid a fall in bond yields.

Thai stocks were up 0.1 percent at midday, erasing

some of their earlier gains, ahead of a court ruling later in

the day on the legality of the 2 trillion baht ($60.38 billion)

borrowing bill for infrastructure projects.

Brokers also cited cautions ahead of the large-scale

protests in Bangkok on Jan. 13 by anti-government protestors,

calling for a political reform to precede the election.

"Heading toward the end of the week, most investors will

either trim position or stay out of the market to monitor the

large scale anti-government protests," strategists at broker KGI

Securities wrote in a report.

Stocks in Singapore rose 0.8 percent after three

days of falls, Malaysia was up 0.5 percent, recovering

from five sessions of losses, while Philippine stocks

edged up 0.5 percent, reversing a fall on Tuesday.

The region saw a handful of selective buying in large caps

such as Singapore's United Overseas Bank, Malaysia's

Petronas Gas, Philippine Energy Development Corp

, Indonesia's Adaro Energy and Thailand's

Central Plaza Hotel.

Vietnam's index was up 0.37 percent as expectations

of solid earnings lifted blue chips. It rose on Tuesday after

the government said it would allow foreign investors to buy

bigger stakes in its banks from next month.

In Jakarta, the key index was nearly flat at

4,174.85.

Broker Trimegah Securities said a fall in Indonesia's

10-year government bond yield on Tuesday after being auctioned

at relatively higher yield could be supportive to the share

market.

"We expect JCI to go up today following yesterday's bond

yield improvement ... but we also expect buyers to remain

cautious," they wrote in a report.

"Demand during auction was not as broad as expected though,

with bids mostly coming from Southeast Asian investors, not much

from U.S. and Europe," they said.

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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS

Change at 0541 GMT

Market Current Prev Close Pct Move

TR SE Asia Index* 381.49 379.63 +0.49

Singapore 3143.91 3120.88 +0.75

Kuala Lumpur 1834.99 1825.11 +0.54

Bangkok 1263.85 1262.36 +0.12

Jakarta 4174.85 4175.81 -0.02

Manila 5976.38 5947.44 +0.49

Ho Chi Minh 512.02 510.12 +0.37