* Banks push Indonesia to new all-time high
* Indonesia, Thailand see rising inflows towards quarter-end
* S'pore at 27-mth high; Malaysia up, but off 32-mth highs
BANGKOK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Indonesian and Philippine stock markets hit record highs on Monday and Thai stocks marked a 14-year high as positive sentiment from Wall Street boosted appetite for Southeast Asian equities.
The region's relatively strong economic performance continued to lure foreign investors. Indonesia has recorded $1.39 billion of foreign buying so far in the third quarter, three times higher than the previous quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Indonesia's main share index
ended up 2.1 percent
on the day and has risen 19 percent in the quarter, Southeast
Asia's third-best performer after the Philippines' 22 percent
and Thailand's 21 percent.Gains in Jakarta included PT Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's biggest lender by market value, which rose 3.1 percent, and PT Bank Danamon , the sixth-largest lender, which gained 5.3 percent, both hitting a record high.
The two stocks have lagged the broader Jakarta market, with Bank Central Asia's 14-day relative strength index (RSI) at 66.7 and Bank Danamon at 68.4 at the close on Monday, compared with the main share index's 78.04.
An RSI level of 70 and higher indicates the market is overbought.
Asian stocks in general climbed on Monday to their highest in more than two years in response to encouraging U.S. economic data, while the dollar recovered some ground after plumbing five-month lows against the euro.
At 1033 GMT, the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside
Japan
had climbed 1.16 percent, hitting its
highest since June 2008.Thailand's SET indexand the Philippines index both gained 1.1 percent on the day. Singapore rose 0.7 percent to a 27-month high and Malaysia added almost 1 percent but was below a 32-month high.
Thailand saw $1.6 billion in inflows in the third quarter up to Friday, almost reversing a net outflow of $1.85 billion in the second quarter, stock exchange data showed.
Dealers said sentiment in the Thai market was helped by the Finance Ministry on Monday, which raised its 2010 economic growth forecast to 7.3-7.8 percent from 5.0-6.0 percent because of a strong first half and robust exports. [ID:nSGE68Q033]
Bangkok-based KGI Securities strategist Rakphong Chaisuparakul expected the market to see more capital inflows.
"As interest rates in the West are expected to remain low until the middle of 2011 and Thai interest rates are still on the rise, spreads should continue to widen and attract more capital inflows into both the bond and equity markets," he said.
Heavily weighted energy shares led gains in Bangkok, with
the energy subindex
rising 1.4 percent as the global
oil price moved towards a two-week high.PTT Pcl, the biggest energy firm, was up 1.38 percent while its exploration flagship, PTT Exploration and Production Pcl , climbed 2.7 percent to a one-month high.
In Singapore, property and financials rose, with Hongkong Landup 3.2 percent and City Developments up 2.8 percent. DBS , Southeast Asia's biggest lender, rose 1 percent.
In Manila, shares in Petron Corp
jumped 7.6
percent on a report it would step up investment to upgrade its
refinery and petrochemical business in Bataan, traders said.
[ID:nMNB002758]
(Additional reporting by Singapore bureau; Editing by Alan
Raybould)
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