SET up despite Banpu | Bangkok Post: business

Thai stocks moved up slightly on Friday despite a big drop in shares of blue-chip coal miner Banpu Plc.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index closed up 3.58 points or 0.28% from the day before at 1,286.26 a gain of 0.7% from the previous Friday's close of 1,276.12. Turnover was 39.57 billion baht with 6.64 billion shares traded.Banpu dropped 38 baht or 8.6%, the most in a year, to close at 404 baht on market-leading turnover of 6.6 billion baht after a court ordered it to pay 31.7 billion baht in compensation to a former partner in a power project in Laos.The Thai Civil Court on Thursday ordered Banpu and its power unit to pay Siva Nganthavee and his companies damages worth 4 billion baht, excluding interest, and an opportunity cost of 860 million baht a year for 2015 to 2027 and 1.38 billion baht a year for 2028 to 2039, Banpu CFO Somruedee Chaimongkol confirmed.Mr Siva had sought 63.5 billion baht from Banpu, claiming the company sidelined his firm from the $3.7-billion Hongsa power plant after deceptively gaining information about the plant and a related coal mine and influencing the Lao government.Vientiane subsequently cancelled its contract with Mr Siva and awarded the project to Banpu.Banpu would appeal against the court order, Ms Somruedee said in a statement to the stock exchange.Most Asian markets rose as the debut of the Apple iPhone 5 boosted technology shares and energy companies advanced on higher crude prices.On the SET, foreign investors were net sellers on Friday of 508.96 million baht worth of Thai shares...