Most Southeast Asia stocks end lower; Indonesia posts 11-month closing low

Most Southeast Asian stock markets reversed early gains to end lower on Monday with Indonesia marking its lowest close in more than 11 months while Vietnam shed 2.5 percent.

Jakarta’s main index closed at its lowest since June 2017, with banking stocks bearing the brunt.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia ended 6.1 percent lower, while Bank Negara Indonesia lost 3.6 percent.

Bank Indonesia said it would conduct three foreign exchange swap auctions this week to ensure there is enough currency liquidity in the market after it hiked its benchmark interest rate last week to support the rupiah and plug capital outflows.

“As the U.S. continuously raises interest rates, it’s impacting a lot of emerging markets, such as Indonesia. Hence, the central bank has to raise interest rates to stamp out capital outflows,” said Joel Ng, analyst at KGI Securities.

The index of the country’s most liquid stocks shed 1.3 percent.

Vietnam ended 2.5 percent lower, with real estate and financials leading the fall. Vingroup Joint Stock was the biggest drag on the index, closing 7 percent lower.

“Foreign selling recently has hit Vietnam harder. We went up a lot in the first quarter, so the impact of profit-taking is greater now,” said Fiachra Mac Cana, head of research at Ho Chi Minh Securities.

Singapore nudged up 0.54 percent to end at a one-week high, while Thai stocks gained for a third straight session.

Petroleum explorer PTT Exploration and Production closed 3.4 percent higher, while Kasikornbank gained 2.4 percent.

Thailand saw its fastest economic growth in five years in the first quarter, boosted by strong exports and tourism, plus a slight firming in private consumption.