The annual rate of consumer price inflation was unchanged at 3.4 percent in April, slightly below economists' forecast for an increase to 3.5 percent, and within the central bank's 3.0-3.8 percent projection for the month. "Foreign investment flows have been coming into the market, so that's been helping the buying pressure to be sustained," said Victor Felix, an equity analyst with AB Capital Securities.
"Also, we're going to be expecting relatively good first-quarter earnings for 2017, so the market is positioning ahead of that." Meanwhile, fresh falls in commodity prices raised concerns about the health of the global economy. Chinese iron ore futures fell nearly 7 percent in opening trades, and copper held near four-month lows following its biggest one-day drop in 20 months in the previous session.
Oil prices fell further on Friday to be mired at five-month lows after tumbling in the previous session, as concerns about global oversupply wiped out all of the price gains since Opec's move to cut output. Thai shares closed 0.3 percent lower, but clocked a weekly gain of 0.2 percent. Malaysian shares eked out small gains, but posted a weekly fall of 0.3 percent.
Indonesian shares closed 0.3 percent higher, after data showed that first-quarter GDP grew 5.01 percent on firmer export prices of some commodities and stronger demand in major trading partners. For the week, Indonesia closed slightly down, after two straight weeks of gains. Singapore shares finished flat, while Vietnam fell 0.3 percent.
Copyright Reuters, 2017