Students in cities across Indonesia began protesting this week against a set of bills that penalised adultery and revised laws on corruption, among others.

The Jakarta index <.JKSE> has underperformed since last Friday, on a slew of issues that include concerns over a slowdown in growth and the political upheaval, losing more than 2% by Tuesday.

But the index picked up the pace on Thursday, helped by financial and telco stocks as "calmer streets in the capital following two days of protests against controversial revised bills by the parliament gave investors renewed confidence to the market", said Anugerah Zamzami Nasr, equity research analyst, Phillip Sekuritas Indonesia.

Meanwhile, analysts at Danareksa Securities expect telecom service providers Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk PT and XL Axiata Tbk PT to remain resilient in tough market conditions and post solid average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.

Shares of Telekom Indonesia rose 3.3%, while XL surged 6.1% to mark its best day in more than two weeks.

Other Southeast Asian markets also nudged higher after U.S. President Donald Trump hinted a trade deal with China could happen sooner than expected.

Trump's salvo spurred a rally in global equities but regional markets were largely muted, reflecting that local investors see this as only a short-term catalyst since the trade spat has caused enormous volatility in markets.

"Markets could be less sensitive towards such demonstrations of 'goodwill' and may prefer to wait for concrete progress in talks," Maybank analysts said in a note.

Thai stocks added 0.5% amid broad-based gains with telco Advanced Info Service PCL topping the benchmark.

Singapore shares <.STI> remained unchanged as data showed that the city-state's industrial output for August declined 8% to miss expectations by a wide margin.

The Philippine stock index <.PSI> also ended flat prior to the central bank's policy decision where a 25 bps trim was delivered.

(Reporting by Anushka Trivedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams)