SE Asia Stocks-S'pore, Indonesia, Thailand turn round, end up

* Singapore recoups losses; SingTel, DBS Group lead

* Bargain hunting helps Thai stocks recover

* Indonesia outperforms; Malaysia erases some losses

By Viparat Jantraprap

BANGKOK, May 18 (Reuters) - Singapore shares rose more than
1 percent on Monday, staging a late rebound like other major
Southeast Asian markets, with Singapore Telecommunications,
Thailand's Esso and Indonesia's Bank Rakyat leading the way.

Singapore's Straits Time index .FTSTI closed up 1.6
percent, Thailand's SET index .SETI gained 1.2 percent and
Indonesia's index .JKSE jumped 3 percent.

They all lost about 2 percent in morning trade.

Malaysia's benchmark .KLSE inched down 0.2 percent but
that was an improvement on the 1.4 percent loss earlier in the
day.

Investors in Bangkok and elsewhere in the region looked for
bargains as they tracked a late recovery in some big Asian
markets such as Hong Kong .HSI, dealers said. [ID:nHKG182279]

But concern about corporate profits and the still-uncertain
outlook for the global economy weighed on many Asian stock
markets. [ID:nSP485084]

"Overall, markets in the region are still in a
consolidation phase," said Pichai Lertsupongkij, head of sales
at Thanachart Securities.

In Singapore, top telecoms firm SingTel (STEL.SI) jumped
6.4 percent and top lender DBS Group Holdings (DBSM.SI) rose
4.5 percent. In Bangkok, refiner Esso ESSO.BK surged 14.8
percent and PTT Chemical PTTC.BK climbed 4 percent.

Worries about the pace of economic recovery weighed on
sentiment in Singapore, analysts said.

"I think the Singapore market is just following the rest of
the region. We have seen some 'bottoming effect' in the macro
data, but, going forward, how long and how protracted the whole
recession is going to be, nobody really knows," said Daphne
Roth, an analyst at ABN AMRO private bank.

"I think the market is just taking the opportunity to
reassess itself and also some participants are taking the
opportunity to take some profit ... A correction will be rather
shallow and also not for long."

In Jakarta, gainers included Bank Rakyat (BBRI.JK), which
rose 6.3 percent, and Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGAS.JK), which
jumped 9.1 percent. Coal producer PT Bumi Resources (BUMI.JK)
surged 10.1 percent after Friday's 8.2 percent loss.

In Kuala Lumpur, Genting (GENT.KL) was up 2.1 percent and
financial-to-property group TA Enterprise (TAES.KL) rose 8.1
percent.

Plantation shares underperformed as Malaysian palm futures
dropped to a two-week intraday low, with IOI Corp (IOIB.KL)
down 1.8 percent and Wilmar International (WLIL.SI) 0.9 percent
lower.
($1 = 34.54 Baht)
(Additional reporting by Candida Ng in Singapore; Editing by
Alan Raybould)