DBS : Southeast Asia stocks - Most fall on weak China trade data, global growth woes

(Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets slipped on Friday in line with broader Asia, as investors were rattled by a cooling global economy after the European Central Bank slashed its growth forecasts and dismal trade data from China.

ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday cautioned of a period of "continued weakness and pervasive uncertainty" while lowering the bank's growth and inflation forecasts, and offered banks a new round of cheap loans to help revive the euro zone economy.

Data from China - the region's largest trading partner showed that the country's February dollar-denominated exports fell 20.7 percent from a year earlier, far worse than analysts' expectations, while imports dropped 5.2 percent.

The ECB comments and China data sent broader Asian shares to a two-week low, with Asia ex-Japan falling 1.1 percent.

Singapore shares were among the worst performers in the region, shedding 0.7 percent with broad-based losses.

DBS Group Holdings, the country's largest lender lost 0.8 percent, while industrial conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd fell 1.1 percent.

The Singapore benchmark index was on track to post a weekly loss of 0.4 percent.

The Jakarta SE Composite Index, which resumed trading after a holiday fell 0.8 percent, with consumer and material sectors taking the biggest hit.

Shares of cement maker Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa traded 2 percent lower, while conglomerate Astra International weakened 1.7 percent.

Vietnam stocks were on track to extend losses for a second session, with all sectors in the red.

The Vietnam index, which has been the region's best performer since the turn of year was poised to record a gain of 0.9 percent for the week.

Philippine shares were set to snap two sessions of gains, dragged down by financial stocks. Bank of the Philippine Islands and BDO Unibank Inc were down 1.5 and 0.5 percent, respectively.

The newly-appointed Philippines central bank governor Benjamin Diokno said there was room to ease monetary policy in the country given a cooling inflation, but the timing of any such action would depend on how the economy fares.

He said there was an opportunity to further reduce banks' reserve requirement ratio, which he said was still too high.

(Reporting by Shriya Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

By Shriya Ramakrishnan