Southeast Asia stocks end mixed on first trading day

Vietnam shares rose for a third straight session on Tuesday led by banking stocks while Indonesian and Malaysian markets ended their first day of trade in 2017 in the opposite direction.

Vietnam shares gained 1.1% with Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam rising over 5% to its highest in two months while Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade hit its highest level in a month, rising 7%.

"I think it's the banking sector which seems to be really what's driving the index today and I think it's a little bit of a catch-up rally," said Fiachra Mac Cana, head of research at Ho Chi Minh Securities.

Sentiment was also aided by positive factory data earlier in the day that showed new export orders jumped to their highest since 2011.

Philippine shares pared losses to end the day in positive terrain, rising 0.3%, on some interest from  foreign buyers.

"Mainly I think it is net foreign buying of almost 300 million pesos today, which is a reversal from the trend of the past few weeks which saw significant net foreign selling," said Victor Felix, an analyst at AB Capital Securities.

Consumer stocks led the gains with conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc and Jollibee Foods Corp climbing over 3% each.

Singapore stocks also recovered, ending the day up 0.6% after fourth-quarter gross domestic product beat expectations, helped by a rebound in manufacturing.

Industrials and real estate stocks led the gains with Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd adding 3.4%, its highest in over two months while Hongkong Land Holdings Ltd rose 2.8%.

Indonesia and Malaysia ended their first day of trade in 2017 down 0.4% each, as factory activity in both countries contracted in December.

Sentiment in Indonesia further soured as the finance ministry said on Tuesday that Indonesia's budget deficit in 2016 was 2.46% of gross domestic product, slightly bigger than forecast in the government's revised budget in June.