SE Asia Stocks -Most up; Thai index dips on selling in bank shares

BANGKOK, March 10 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock

markets rebounded on Tuesday as bargain hunting emerged in

battered large caps, but Thai shares were headed for a second

session of decline, a day before the central bank's interest

rate meeting.

The Thai SET index was down 0.5 percent, with

banking shares sliding 0.9 percent.

Investors were broadly cautious about a possible monetary

policy easing by the Bank of Thailand, according to local

brokers.

"Traders are waiting for the Thai MPC's decision tomorrow on

whether it will cut policy interest rate," strategists at broker

KGI Securities wrote in a report.

Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday

Thailand should not rush to cut interest rates, backing market

expectations that the central bank will leave policy unchanged

at Wednesday's meeting.

Singapore's key Straits Times Index was nearly

flat, with shares of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp

recovering from Monday's loss and rising 0.6 percent.

Shares of Malaysia-listed Public Bank inched up

0.1 percent, recovering from a more than one-week low hit in the

previous session. Indonesia-listed Bank Mandiri's

shares jumped 2 percent, coming off Monday's near three-week

closing low.

Asian stocks declined, with MSCI's broadest index of

Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.8

percent amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve would start

lifting interest rates from mid-year.

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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS

Change at 0759 GMT

Market Current Prev Close Pct Move

Singapore 3404.08 3404.57 -0.01

Kuala Lumpur 1797.94 1791.74 +0.35

Bangkok 1551.55 1559.71 -0.52

Jakarta 5466.14 5444.63 +0.39

Manila 7828.48 7820.29 +0.10

Ho Chi Minh 589.66 588.44 +0.21

(Reporting by Viparat Jantraprap; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)