Southeast Asian stocks ended lower on Thursday ahead of a long weekend for most markets in the region, with the Stock Exchange of Thailand index marking a six-month closing low while resurfacing US-China trade tensions played on investors' minds.
US President Donald Trump will meet his top trade advisers on Thursday to decide on activating tariffs on Chinese goods, a senior Trump administration official said, as China again urged talks to settle the dispute.
Trump is due to unveil revisions to his initial tariff list targeting $50 billion of Chinese goods on Friday.
The US Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to raise its benchmark overnight lending rate and indications of further hikes by the end of this year also weighed on markets, while China left short-term interest rates unchanged.
Investors also awaited an announcement by the European Central Bank on whether or not it will end its asset purchases by year-end.
The SET index closed 8.48 points or 0.49% lower to end the day at 1,709.86, in trade worth 59 billion baht.
Thai shares marked their lowest close since mid-December with material stocks like PTT Global Chemical Plc and Siam Cement Plc down over 2% each.
The Vietnam index fell 1.44%, dragged down by Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam and Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam. The index is down 2.2% so far this week.
Singapore shares ended lower for a third consecutive session, and shed 2.3% for the week.
Financials accounted for most of the losses with both DBS Group and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp ending over 1% lower.
Markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines are closed on Friday for holidays.
