* Ayala Corp , Metro Pacific Investments top gainers on
Philippine
index
* Malaysia slashes policy rate by 50 bps to 2.00%
* Thailand closes lower
By Nikhil Subba
May 5 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets closed
higher on Tuesday, with Philippines gaining the most after
President Rodrigo Duterte apologised for his "hurting words"
about two tycoons associated with some of the biggest companies
in the country.
President Duterte apologised to the Ayala family, the owners
of Ayala Corp AC.PS , and to Manuel Pangilinan, the CEO of
Metro Pacific Company, offering an olive branch to settle a
costly regulatory row. Shares of Ayala Corp and Metro Pacific Investments Corp
MPI.PS surged 14.7% and 13.6%, respectively, helping the
Philippine benchmark .PSI end 1.8% higher after gaining as
much as 2.4% earlier in the session, the most since April 17.
Meanwhile, most other markets in Southeast Asia rose as
investors found hope in the phased reopening of some economies
that were earlier hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
"The oscillating sentiment once again shifted towards the
positive end, underpinned by reopening hopes that looks to
relieve some of the frayed nerves from concerns over renewed
U.S.-China tensions," Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG said
in a note.
Malaysian stocks .KLSE ended about 1% higher, boosted by
Petronas Chemicals Group PCGB.KL and Axiata Group AXIA.KL ,
which gained 2.8% and 1.9%, respectively.
The country's central bank on Tuesday slashed its key
interest rate by 50 basis points to the lowest since 2009 and
left the door open for further cuts to protect the trade-reliant
nation's economy from prolonged, pandemic-driven damage.
Bucking the trend, Thai stocks .SETI shed 1.8%, pressured
by Minor International MINT.BK , down 5.2%, and Hana
Microelectronics HANA.BK , which fell 3.5%.
"Thai stocks look set to start the week with a downward bias
... to play catch-up with losses in overseas bourses when the
Thai stock market was closed on Friday and Monday," analysts at
Phillip Securities said in a note.
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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS
Change on the day
Market Current Previous Pct Move
close
Singapore 2572.36 2563.69 0.34
Bangkok 1278.63 1301.66 -1.77
Manila 5671.67 5572.09 1.79
Jakarta 4630.133 4605.487 0.54
Kuala Lumpur 1389.55 1376.59 0.94
Ho Chi Minh 764.16 762.47 0.22
Change so far in
2020
Market Current End 2019 Pct Move
Singapore 2572.36 3222.83 -20.18
Bangkok 1278.63 1579.84 -19.07
Manila 5671.67 7,815.26 -27.43
Jakarta 4630.133 6,299.54 -26.50
Kuala Lumpur 1389.55 1588.76 -12.54
Ho Chi Minh 764.16 960.99 -20.48