* Indonesia on track to end 5 sessions of losses
* Philippine index falls up to 0.7%
* Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand markets closed
By Niyati Shetty
May 20 (Reuters) - Indonesian shares rose on Monday, ahead
of the outcome of the country's presidential election, while
Philippines declined as Sino-U.S. trade tensions kept investors
at bay.
Results of the hotly-contested presidential election in
Indonesia is expected to confirm, on Wednesday, unofficial
counts by private pollsters last month that showed incumbent
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) winning a second term over
ex-general Prabowo Subianto. Jokowi's re-election will be the "most market-friendly
outcome, or one less thing for investors to be worried about
amid rising external uncertainty," ING said in a note on Friday.
The Jakarta index .JKSE gained as much as 0.8% and was
poised to snap five straight sessions of declines. Financials
and communications sectors provided support.
PT Bank Central Asia Tbk BBCA.JK and PT Telekomunikasi
Indonesia (Persero) Tbk TLKM.JK each advanced 2.3%.
The Philippine bourse .PSI lost up to 0.7%, weighed by
real estate and industrial sectors. The index was on track to
decline for a sixth session in seven.
Property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc SMPH.PS fell up to
2.2%, while conglomerate SM Investments Corp SM.PS slipped
1.2%.
Risk appetite took a hit in the region due to escalating
tensions between the world's largest economies, which
intensified after the Trump administration added Huawei
Technologies Co Ltd HWT.UL to a trade blacklist last week.
In response to the restrictions, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O
Google suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer
of hardware, software and technical services except those
publicly-available via open source licensing, a source familiar
with the matter told Reuters. Vietnam stocks .VNI were largely flat, with gains in
utilities sector offsetting losses in real estate stocks.
Financial markets in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia were
closed for holidays.
For Asian Companies click;
SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS AS AT 0327 GMT
Market Current Previous close Pct Move
Manila 7540.75 7583.82 -0.57
Jakarta 5869.608 5826.868 0.73
Ho Chi Minh 976.31 976.48 -0.02
Change so far in 2019
Market Current End 2018 Pct Move
Manila 7540.75 7,466.02 1.00
Jakarta 5869.608 6,194.50 -5.24
Ho Chi Minh 976.31 892.54 9.39