Thai stocks rose 1.7% on Friday as investors continued to hunt for bargains amid signs of continuing improvement in the global economy.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index gained 22.76 points from Thursday to close at 1,336.25, an increase of 3.2% from the previous Friday's close of 1,294.30. Turnover was modest at 31.66 billion baht, with 6 billion shares traded.
The local market is down 3.9% from the end of 2012 and 18.7% from the year-high of 1,643.34 reached in mid-May.
Foreign investors were net buyers on Friday of 985 million baht worth of Thai shares. Local institutions were net buyers of 8.4 million baht and brokers bought 1.76 billion. Individual investors were net sellers of 2.75 billion baht.
For the year to date, foreign investors have sold 116 billion baht more in Thai shares than they have bought, while local institutions are the biggest net buyers at 74.2 billion baht.
Activity in global stock markets was tentative, with traders exercising prudence ahead of the release of US jobs data later on Friday.
Signs of a strengthening US labour market added to hopes that the recovery of the global economy was gaining traction.
"The market mood should remain healthy though Syria will be a lingering concern as the G-20 concludes," said analysts at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong, referring to President Obama's attempts to secure support for a strike against the Bashir al-Assad regime for using chemical weapons.
European stocks were down marginally in early trading. Wall Street also looked set for slim losses, with Dow Jones industrial futures down less than 0.1% at 14,908. S&P 500 futures were nearly unchanged at 1,652.80.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell on profit-taking after four sessions of gains. The benchmark index closed down 1.5% at 13,860.81. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2% to 1,955.31. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose slightly to 5,145.
Stocks in Hong Kong and mainland China have posted gains in recent days after Chinese manufacturing data showed the slowdown was stabilising.
The Shanghai Composite Index has gained about 100 points in just the past month.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.1% to 22,621.22. The Shanghai index advanced 0.8% to 2,139.99 and the Shenzhen Composite rose 0.5% to 1,030.76.
In Bangkok, the SET50 index of blue chips ended at 913.56 points, up 16.25 points, with total trade value of 23.76 billion baht. The SETHD index of high-dividend shares rose 15.52 points to 1,121.58, with turnover of 10.68 billion baht. The Market for Alternative Investment gained 6.05 points to 339.58, with transaction value of 3 billion baht.
The five most active shares by value were KBANK, rising 4 baht to 167 baht; TRUE, up 35 satang to 6.75 baht; PTT, up 3 baht to 334; Advanced Info Service (ADVANC), up 5 baht to 253; and the coal miner BANPU, up 10 baht to 305.
In the currency markets, the baht fell for a fourth week before the release of US jobs data that may influence expectations of when the Federal Reserve will start to reduce its stimulus.
The baht lost 0.7% this week and was trading late Friday in Bangkok at 32.38/42 to the dollar, compared with 32.28/33 on Thursday, and 32.14/18 a week earlier. It reached a low of 32.48 earlier, the weakest since July 2010.
"Emerging-market currencies and assets are under downward pressure and such severe conditions will probably continue for a while. Syria tensions are adding to weak sentiment," said Hideki Hayashi, a researcher at the Japan Center for Economic Research in Tokyo.
In the bond market, the yield on the 3.625% sovereign bond due in June 2023 rose nine basis points from a week ago to 4.4%, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That is the highest level for a benchmark 10-year note since November 2009.