Southeast Asian stock markets mostly rose on Friday amid active buying in large-caps and financial shares, with the Philippine index climbing to an intra-day record peak and the Thai benchmark extending gains to a more than two-week high.

Asian stocks were up on upbeat expectations for the closely watched US jobs data, while the euro continued to flirt with fresh nine-year lows against the dollar.

The Philippine’s composite index rallied for a tenth session, touching an intra-day record high of 7,446.66. It was up almost 3 per cent on the week, and was among the region’s outperformers.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust rose 1.6 per cent, following up on its surge on Thursday due to foreign-led buying, exchange data showed.

In Bangkok, the SET index was up 0.4 per cent on the day and about 2 per cent on the week.

Positive backdrop

Brokers cited a positive global backdrop. “As most investors are waiting for tonight’s US unemployment rate, the SET Index is expected to move in a range of 1,515-1,530 points. The movement of the banking and ICT sectors will reflect foreign capital direction,’’ strategists at broker Maybank Kim Eng Securities said in a report.

Telecom firm True Corp gained 4.4 per cent, while Kasikornbank was 0.4 per cent higher.

Foreign investors bought Thai shares worth a net 1.2 billion baht ($36.5 million) on Thursday, their first net purchases in five sessions, in part due to short-covering, according to brokers.

Vietnam’s benchmark VN Index jumped nearly 3 per cent, taking its gains on the week to 3.7 per cent, led by banking stocks and PetroVietNam Gas. It was among the top performers in the region.

Palm plantation stocks such as Noble Group and IOI Corp underperformed in Singapore and Malaysia as Malaysian palm oil futures dipped for the first time in four days on Friday. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are on track for modest losses on the week.

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