Asian stock markets retreat Wednesday, with energy shares mostly lower

Southeast Asian stock markets trimmed gains on Thursday with the Philippine main index retreating from the previous day’s record close as a fall in crude prices overnight spurred selling in recently-rallying energy shares.

Oil-related stocks suffered the biggest losses. Shares of Philippine Petron Corp slipped 1.4 per cent, Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine dropped 2.6 per cent and Malaysia’s Sapurakencana Petroleum’s eased 0.7 per cent.

As China took steps to pour liquidity into its economy to incentivise activity, oil prices edged a little higher on Thursday, rising after suffering big losses in the previous session. Some losses were noticeable, after China’s central bank made a system-wide cut to bank reserve requirements to tackle economic slowdown and looming deflation, according to brokers in the region.

“On the positive side, China announced that it will cut reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points to boost bank lending, which is positive to China’s economic outlook,’’ strategists at KGI Securities in Bangkok wrote in a report.

The Philippine main index edged down 0.4 per cent, after a 1.4 percent gain on Wednesday to 7,716.06, its eighth record close this year.

Bangkok’s key SET index was down 0.08 per cent, dragged by large-cap energy stocks.

Top energy firm PTT and energy explorer PTT Exploration and Production both fell more than 2 per cent.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 0.4 per cent, after a 0.3 per cent rise on the prior trading day.

Malaysia was a tad lower after marking its biggest single-day gain in more than six weeks on Wednesday.

Indonesia fell after hitting a near two-week closing high in the previous session. Shares in PT Bank Mandiri Tbk dropped 0.9 per cent after parliament rejected a government proposal for the lender to receive a 5.6 trillion rupiah ($443 million) capital injection.

Interrupting the trend, Vietnam rose for a second session, adding about 1 per cent.