Despite the recent scare of SARS and Bird Flu, the South-East Asian markets have shown tremendous resilience and have been an attractive destination for global funds. Having emerged from the East Asian crises, the economies of South-East Asia are regaining the confidence of the global investors. The hiccups of SARS and Bird Flu did not have a major impact on these markets. For the year 2003, the Singapore and Philippines markets have risen 30%. But the Indonesian and Thai markets have done even better with the Indonesian market surging ahead by 70% and the Thai market by more than 120%. But with every growth, the memories of the previous crises seem to haunt some of the investors.

The reasons for the surge in the stock markets seem to have come from many fronts. The undervaluation of stocks, the relative normalcy after the Iraq war and the easy availability of credit seem to have brought the investors back into the stock markets. After the East Asian crises, the investors shunned the stock markets and were confining their savings to banks. But with the interest rates coming down, the investors are moving towards the stock markets. All the countries have seen a steady increase in demand for cars, and real estate housing. This rise in the consumption levels is boosting the companies' sales and is also helping the companies, which were neck deep in debt to payback the debt. This in turn is also helping the banking sector to work on cleaning up their balance sheets. This has led to improvement in the overall economic condition of the region.