Thai stocks jumped by 2.05% yesterday to push the index to its highest level in 21 months as most Asian markets gained ground on continued optimism about the global economic recovery. The Stock Exchange of Thailand index closed at 774.59 points, up 15.57, in heavy trade worth 33.99 billion baht, its highest close since June 2008. Banks gained 3.92%, energy stocks rose 1.5% and petrochemicals rose 4.97%.
Foreign investors were net buyers for the 19th straight day, at 2.74 billion baht yesterday while local institutions were net buyers of 77.7 million and local investors net sellers of 2.98 billion.
Capital inflows have helped push the index up by more than 50 points this month, with the index now up 6.13% over the past three months.
Asian markets, meanwhile, continued gains for the sixth straight week, with Tokyo up by 0.8%, Shanghai by 0.1% and Seoul by 0.65%.
Concerns about the state of the Greek economy helped push the dollar up against the euro, boosting Asian shares. In Asian trade the dollar stood at 90.45 yen, up from 90.39 Thursday in New York. The euro was at 1.3621 dollars and 123.20 yen, compared with 1.3603 dollars and 123.07 yen in New York. The baht is just off a 21-month high, and closed yesterday at 32.27/31 to the dollar against 32.29/31 on Thursday.
via SET rises on Asian surge.
