Thai stocks rose 0.6% on Friday to finish a solid first week of 2013 with a 1.8% gain despite weak sentiment in most other Asian and world markets.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index gained 8.25 points to close at 1,416.66, a rise of 1.8% from the previous Friday's close of 1,391.93. Turnover was heavy at 47.35 billion baht, with 18.36 billion shares traded.
Foreign investors were net buyers on Friday of 2.82 billion baht worth of Thai shares, bringing their net buying for the first week of the year to 3.89 billion baht. Local institutions were net sellers of 1.5 billion baht, brokers sold 1.16 billion and retail investors were net sellers of 148.6 million baht.
With the exception of Japan, most world markets stalled on Friday as enthusiasm faded over the last-minute "fiscal cliff" deal reached in Washington.
Investors are disappointed but hardly surprised that US lawmakers settled for a quick fix to stave off tax increases and spending cuts. Still ahead are hard decisions about how to reduce government spending and America's massive debt.
European stocks were mostly lower in early trading, though Wall Street looked set for a gain, with Dow Jones futures rising 0.1% to 13,331 and S&P 500 futures adding nearly 0.2% to 1,456.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.8% to 10,688.11, its highest closing in 22 months. Much of the enthusiasm reflected the steadily weakening yen, which was trading yesterday around 88 to the dollar, a level not seen in 29 months.
Elsewhere, however, investor fervour wilted. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.3% to 23,331.09. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4% to 2,011.94, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4% to 4,723.80. Benchmarks in Taiwan and New Zealand fell. Mainland China was mixed, while Indonesia and the Philippines rose.
In Bangkok, the SET50 index of blue chips ended at 958.42 points, up 5.37 points, with total trade value of 26.6 billion baht. The SETHD index of high-dividend shares rose 4.79 points to 1,257.83, with turnover of 912.3 billion baht. The Market for Alternative Investment gained 2.15 points to 421.28, with transaction value of 1.87 billion baht.
The five most active shares by value were Bangkok Bank (BBL), rising 3 baht to close at 197; Shin Corp (INTUCH), down 1 baht to 67.50; PTT, down 2 baht to 335; Bangkok Land, unchanged at 1.30 baht; and TMB Bank, up 3 satang to 1.99 baht.
In the currency markets, the baht endured a volatile day, touching a 10-month high of 30.29 to the US dollar before falling back to record the biggest single-day decline since Sept 24.
The baht was trading late Friday in Bangkok at 30.48 to the dollar, compared with 30.35.37 on Thursday. It was trading at 30.60/62 a week earlier. The currency appreciated 3.1% in 2012 after advancing 5% in 2011.
Analysts said the currency market was reacting to reports, based on minutes of the last US Federal Reserve meeting, that the Fed would likely end its bond-buying programme sometime this year.
Heavy purchases of debt by the Fed, part of its quantitative easing (QE) stimulus programme, have expanded liquidity and a lot of that money has gone into emerging-market stocks and bonds where returns are better than in the West.
"The Fed minutes determined the baht's movement and gave some support to the dollar in other Asian markets as well," said Kozo Hasegawa, a foreign-exchange trader in Bangkok at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
"Funds will continue to pour into Thailand and I don't think this trend will reverse too soon."
The yield on the 3.875% Thai government bonds due in June 2019 rose 11 basis points to 3.34% from a week ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.