SET closes up 3.49 to 1,603.45

Thai stocks edged up 0.2% on Friday in quiet trade as most Asian markets were closed for the Lunar New Year.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index rose 3.49 points from Thursday to close at 1,603.45, a decrease of 0.8% from the previous Friday's close of 1,615.89. Turnover was low at 40.89 billion baht, with 11.44 billion shares traded. The local market is up 7% from the end of 2014.

Foreign investors were net sellers on Friday of 591.4 million baht worth of Thai shares, reducing their net buying position for the month to 2.62 billion baht. For the year to date they are net sellers of 1.67 billion baht.

Local institutions were net sellers of 406.3 million baht and brokers were net buyers of 56.5 million. Individual investors were net buyers of 941.2 million baht.

Global stock markets were generally quiet because of the closures in Asia, but Tokyo shares continued to rise on optimism about the Japanese economy.

In early trade in Europe, France's CAC 40 lost 0.3%, Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed and Germany's DAX slipped 0.2%.

European investors expect Greece will head into another round of negotiations for a bailout settlement for its debt crisis, but opposition continues to come from lead lender Germany.

US shares appeared poised to drift lower with Dow and S&P 500 futures both down 0.1%.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to close at 18,332.30, building on the upbeat mood that marked the previous day, when it ended close to a 15-year high. Japan has been pushing ahead with export-encouraging policies such as the cheap yen.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.4% to 5,881.50. Most other regional markets were closed for the holidays.

In Bangkok, the SET50 index of blue chips ended at 1,058.77 points, up 2.29, on turnover of 14.9 billion baht, and the SET100 rose 4.40 points to 2,356.59 in trade worth 21.43 billion. The SETHD index of high-dividend shares rose 5.20 points to 1,216.98, with turnover of 6.89 billion baht. The Market for Alternative Investment gained 2.60 points to 796.59, with transaction value of 4.78 billion baht.

In the currency markets,the baht was trading late Friday in Bangkok at 32.57 to the dollar, compared with 32.54/56 on Thursday and 32.52/54 a week earlier.