SE Asia Stocks-Most up; Thai stocks retreat amid political chaos

BANGKOK, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stocks

gained in light volume on Thursday, with the Singapore index

trading close to three-week highs amid selective buying, while

Thai stocks pulled back from two days of rises on domestic

political problems and a cut in the country's GDP growth

estimate.

Singapore's Straits Times Index edged up 0.2

percent at 3,133.35, at one point touching 3,138.15, its highest

level since Dec. 5. Shares of Thai Beverage rose 1.9

percent, the top percentage gainer on the benchmark.

Malaysia's index inched up 0.3 percent, led by a 2.2

percent rise in shares of Hong Leong Financial Group

while the Philippine index headed up 0.5 percent, with

outperformers including San Miguel Corp.

Vietnam was up 0.38 percent, led by some blue-chips.

The index is likely to fall slightly in the short term when

investors take profit on speculative stocks, said Nguyen Tuan,

deputy manager at An Binh Securities.

Thai stocks bucked the trend as the ongoing political chaos

further hurt prospects of domestic growth. The finance ministry

cut its GDP growth estimate for full year 2013 to 2.8 percent.

The SET index shed 1.2 percent at midday after eking

out a modest 0.5 percent gain over the past two sessions.

Consumer and tourism stocks dropped, including conglomerate

Berli Jucker and Airports of Thailand.

Thai police fired teargas and rubber bullets at

anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Thursday after

demonstrators tried to disrupt planning for a February election,

the first such incident in nearly two weeks.

Strategists at broker Phillip Securities put support for the

SET index at 1,300.

"The major downtrend remains firmly intact. Domestic

political situation still needs to be closely monitored," they

wrote in a report.

The Thai baht hit a near four-year low on Thursday,

pressured by political uncertainty.

Indonesia remained shut for a second day on Thursday, and

will reopen on Friday.

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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS

Change at 0634 GMT

Market Current Prev Close Pct Move

TR SE Asia Index* 384.97 385.81 -0.22

Singapore 3133.35 3127.29 +0.19

Kuala Lumpur 1840.86 1835.49 +0.29

Bangkok 1316.79 1332.45 -1.18

Manila 5884.10 5854.88 +0.50

Ho Chi Minh 506.02 504.42 +0.32