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| • EXCH RATES |
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Baht/$ 33.64/67
Bid/Ask
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GOLD |
14,900
+ 200
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STOCKS
DARANA CHUDASRI
Thai stocks rallied 1.17% yesterday on bargain hunting and speculation ahead of the release beginning next week of second-quarter company earnings. The Stock Exchange of Thailand index closed at 730.29 points, up 8.43, in modest trade worth 13.16 billion baht. Energy stocks led trade, gaining 1.73%, while banks gained 1.15% and property 0.43%.
Adisak Kammool, a vice-president at KGI Securities, said yesterday's gains were supported by both technical and fundamental factors.
The resignation of Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama on Thursday over the Preah Vihear temple dispute helped ease political concerns, analysts said. Gains were also driven by selective buying in blue-chips that investors believed had been oversold over the past month.
Despite yesterday's gains, the SET index remains down nearly 16% from the beginning of the year and off 12.6% over the past three months.
Foreign investors, net sellers for much of the year, continued to dump stocks yesterday, with a net sell position of 1.11 billion baht. Retail investors were net buyers of 177.13 million baht while local institutions were net buyers of 939.87 million.
''Foreign investors may continue to be pulling out of the market, but I think local demand from both institutions and retail investors will continue to be a positive support,'' Mr Adisak said, adding that the new ceiling for the index was 760 points against a floor of 713.
In the currency market, the baht gained marginally to 33.64/67 to the dollar from 33.58/71 on Thursday.
Tak Bunnag, an executive vice-president of Bank of Ayudhya, said that trade yesterday was stable. ''If there were foreign inflows, it wasn't really enough to influence the currency,'' he said.Mr Tak said traders would await next Wednesday's meeting of the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for further cues on the currency.
The MPC is widely expected to raise its benchmark one-day repurchase rate, now 3.25%, by a quarter-point to help curb rising inflation, which reached an annual rate of 8.9% last month.
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