SET up 1% on China optimism | Bangkok Post: business

Thai stocks rose 1% on Friday in line with other Asian markets as investors speculated that China's central bank would act soon to spur the world's second-largest economy.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index closed up 12.68 points or 1% from the day before at 1,298.79, a gain of 1% from the previous Friday's close of 1,286.26. Turnover was 36.08 billion baht, with 6.50 billion shares traded.Foreign investors were net buyers on Friday of 4.05 billion baht worth of Thai shares and institutions bought 422.38 million. Local brokers sold 1.75 billion baht and individual investors sold 2.68 billion.Lorraine Tan, director at Standard & Poor's equity research in Singapore, said she believed the Beijing government was likely to introduce incentives to encourage domestic spending rather than making more money available for loans."Banks are indicating that they are not finding takers for loans," she said. "The Chinese have a lot of flexibility. ... The question is, they will only act on it if they think it will achieve something."Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.4% to 20,840.38. South Korea's Kospi added nearly 0.4% to 1,996.21 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced slightly to 4,387. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines also rose.Mainland Chinese shares rose ahead of an extended holiday next week.World stock markets rose early Friday after Spain announced severe budget cuts meant to show international lenders and investors that the country was taking steps toward getting its debt under control.Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.3% in early trading, Germany's DAX added 0.5% and France's CAC-40 advanced 0.2%. Wall Street was headed for a flat opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures nearly unchanged at 13,412 and S&P 500 futures barely budging at 1,441.20.In Bangkok, the SET50 index of blue chips ended at 886.58 points, up 9.91 points, or 1.13%, with total trade value...