SE Asian Stocks-Thai, Philippine sink 8 pct; Jakarta stays shut

Reuters - Friday, October 10 SINGAPORE, Oct 10 - Indonesia opted to extend a two-day suspension of its stock market on Friday, avoiding a sell-off as Thai and Philippine stocks plunged more than 8 percent. At 0615 GMT, the Thailand stocks index <.SETI> was 8 percent lower while the Philippines <.PSI> extended earlier losses to drop 8.3 percent, due to concerns the world was headed closer to a recession after Wall Street plunged overnight. "It's not about technicals, it is not about fundamentals, it's about sentiment," said Richard Oleta, a broker with A.T De Castro Securities in Manila. "It is a period of pessimism but then again there is always light at the end of the tunnel. But you'll never know how long the tunnel will be," he said. Singapore's Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> fell 7.1 percent in afternoon trading to 1,953.7... [read full story]