OREANDA-NEWS. February 03, 2015. The Thai index snapped two days of falls on Monday, led by energy shares, but tourism stocks slipped after small bombs hit a central shopping mall late on Sunday. Indonesia trimmed some losses after January inflation came below expectations.

The Philippines' main index retreated from Friday's record close of 7,689.91 while Vietnam fell to a near two-week closing low as sentiment in Asia was dampened by the latest guage of China's factory sector activity.

Selling in shares of hotel operators such as Minor International and transporters including national carrier Thai Airways International weighed on the broader sentiment.

The SET index ended a tad higher helped by gains in top three energy stocks - PTT, PTT Exploration and Production and PTT Global Chemical.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered security to be tightened in Bangkok on Monday after two small bombs rattled a luxury shopping mall and stoked tension in a city under martial law since a coup in May.

Indonesia's index eased 0.3 percent to 5,276.24, bouncing off the day's low of 5,257.21. Fund flows were mixed, with Bank Mandiri up 2.3 percent on foreign inflows while Telkom Indonesia fell 0.9 percent on outflows, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Indonesia's annual inflation in January eased to 6.96 percent from 8.36 percent in December after domestic fuel costs fell on sliding global oil prices, the statistics bureau said on Monday.

Market sentiment improved after inflation data, said Harry Su, head of research at Bahana Securities in Jakarta.

"Lower inflation, helped by lower commodity prices, is good for the market, and is in line with our view that it should allow the BI (Bank Indonesia) rate to remain at the current 7.75 percent level," he said.

Bargain hunting emerged in regional oil-related shares, with top gainers including Philippine refiner Petron Corp. Singapore's Sembcorp Marine jumped 2 percent, sending Singapore's index 1 percent higher.