SE Asia Stocks-Mostly up as foreign investors return

* Indonesia sees $80.2 mln in inflows; up 0.4 pct

* Philippines at 1-wk high; sees $24.7 mln in inflows

* Energy shares push Thailand up

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets mostly gained on Thursday as foreign investors again put money into the region although volume on the whole was low.

Commodity and energy shares were in particular demand.

Indonesia .JKSE ended 0.4 percent higher, below the 1.4 percent seen in the early trade, led by shares in the consumer goods sector, and foreign investors bought a net $80.2 million of stock after $176.4 million in the previous three sessions, Reuters data showed.

"We believe that the market has priced in our base case inflation forecast and, hence, that the market downside from current levels is limited," said Morgan Stanley in a research report on Indonesia."We recommend investors to begin gradually to look at rebuilding their position in Indonesia."

Nomura Asia Research added in a report that Indonesia should benefit from strong commodity prices, being a net exporter of both soft commodities and energy.

The Philippines .PSI outperformed with a 1.5 percent rise, erasing some of the 5 percent it had lost so far this year, with $24.7 million in foreign money flowing in.

"Foreign investors are interested in energy and utility sectors," said Ron Rodrigo, head of research at DBP-Daiwa in Manila.

Thailand .SETI gained 0.9 percent to its highest close since Jan. 21, with $41 million in inflows, giving a total of $73.8 million over the past three days.

Thursday's gain was led by energy shares, with a 2 percent rise in top energy firm PTT PTT.BK, which has by far the heaviest weight in the benchmark index.

According to ThomsonReuters StarMine, earnings forecasts for 2011 in the energy sector in Asia have gone up 2 percent over the past 30 days, the sharpest increase of 10 sectors.

Thailand's top agribusiness firm, Charoen Pokphand Foods CPF.BK, jumped 5.1 percent, a day after it said it expected food and agro-industrial businesses in Cambodia, Russia and Malaysia to boost its revenue from overseas markets to 40 percent over the next five years. [ID:nSGE70P03Y]

Malaysia .JKSE gained 0.5 percent, with Petronas Chemicals Group (PCGB.KL) gaining 2.7 percent, and Vietnam .VNI rose 0.3 percent. Singapore .FTSTI closed flat.

Some regional analysts say foreigners may increase their buying in the region as the valuations are becoming attractive again after the recent fall.

Singapore is trading at 13.9 times this year's projected earnings, the highest in the region and compared to all-Asia's 12.9. Thailand is trading at 11.4, lower than the 13.7 of Malaysia and Indonesia and 12.4 of the Philippines, Thomson Reuters StarMine data shows. (Editing by Alan Raybould)