Muhammad Al Fatih, a technical analyst at BNI Securities in Jakarta, had a near-term target of 2,715, then 2,800 for the index. "The stock market in Jakarta is usually influenced by commodity market trends in the world and now there's a belief the commodity markets will be strong this year because of the (global) economy's recovery," he said. "Currently telecom and banking stocks are strong because of confidence in the domestic economy." The country's fifth-largest bank, Bank Danamon, rose almost 6 percent and second-ranked telecoms firm Indosat added 2.8 percent.
Malaysia's index rose 0.5 percent, earlier hitting its highest since March 5, 2008, with number two telecoms firm Axiata surging 6.5 percent. "The market is expecting good earnings when Axiata releases results in February," said a dealer from a Malaysian brokerage. The rally in Indonesia and Malaysia pushed their valuations ahead of other Southeast Asian markets, with Indonesia trading at 17 times price to earnings and Malaysia at 21.5.
Elsewhere, Singapore fell 0.7 percent, weighed down by a 1.6 percent loss in Genting Singapore and a 0.8 percent drop in top lender DBS Group. Thailand's index fell for a second day, ending 0.6 percent lower, earlier touching its lowest since December 22, because of concern about planned political protests. "Red shirt" demonstrators are planning a symbolic rally next week near Bangkok's main airport, but insisted on Wednesday there would be no repeat of a crippling blockade a year ago by a rival protest movement. Index heavyweights led decliners, with top energy firm PTT and PTT Exploration and Production each falling more than 1 percent.
The Philippines inched down 0.02 percent, with Energy Development slashing 3.9 percent and Megaworld off 4.4 percent. "We followed the lead of the US market by starting strong, but we ended flat. This was probably a case of profit-taking. Also, locally, there hasn't been much positive news," said Jose Vistan, an analyst at AB Capital Securities. Vietnam's index lost 1.2 percent, with Vietcombank down 2 percent and Petrovietnam 4.7 percent lower.