SET climbs again, Indonesia stocks plunge

The Stock Exchange of Thailand index climbed for a second consecutive session on Tuesday after declining for eight sessions through Friday.

The SET main idex rose 9.58 points or 0.53% to close at 1,809.90, in trade worth 71.7 billion baht. PTT Plc was the biggest boost to the benchmark, with a rise of 1.4%.

February's consumer price inflation data is due later in the global day, and follows low wage growth numbers last week, which eased concerns about inflation and over a faster pace of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Investors are on the look out for Tuesday's US inflation report as well as China's industrial output and retail sales data for February due on Wednesday, said Fio Dejesus, an equity research analyst at RCBC Securities.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2% after spending much of the day swerving in and out of negative territory.

In other Southeast Asian markets, Malaysian shares gained on financials and consumer staples. Public Bank Bhd rose 1.5%.

Singapore shares rose 0.4%, helped by real estate and financial stocks.

DBS Group Holdings Ltd gained 1.2%, while Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd added 1%.

Indonesian shares dropped 1.4% in broad-based losses. Telekomunikasi Indonesia lost 2.6%.

An index of the country's 45 most liquid stocks fell 1.7%.

Philippine shares fell, hurt by losses in real estate and financial stocks. BDO Unibank Inc declined 2.5%.

When the US rate hike occurs, "international fund managers may be more risk averse, which would mean foreign selling. The typical proxy stocks are also the most heavily weighted (in the benchmark)," said RCBC Securities' Dejesus. 

"When names like Ayala Land, SM Investments Corp fall, then you would see the index go further in the red."