Thai stocks edged up 0.1% on Friday on investor confidence that the improving global economic climate would help business despite the domestic political vacuum.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index rose 1.25 points from Thursday to close at 1,296.49, an increase of 1.7% from the previous Friday's close of 1,274.48. Turnover was 32.07 billion baht, with 7.28 billion shares traded.
The local market is down 0.2% from the end of 2013.
Foreign investors were net buyers on Friday of 146.1 million baht worth of Thai shares, bringing their net sales for the year to date to 13.6 billion baht.
Local institutions were net buyers of 2.15 billion baht while brokers were net sellers of 259.1 million and individual investors made 1.75 billion baht in net sales.
Global stock markets were higher on Friday in anticipation of a positive US jobs report for January as the world's biggest economy continues its steady recovery.
In Europe, the DAX in Germany, the CAC 40 in France and the FTSE 100 in Britain all rose 0.1% in early trading. On Wall Street, Dow futures were up 0.3% and S&P futures added 0.4%.
Hopes of a good jobs report sent both the Dow and the S&P up 1.2% on Thursday, their largest single-day increase since Dec 18.
In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index surged 2.2% to 14,462.41 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1% to 21,636.85. South Korea's Kospi climbed 0.8% to 1,922.50 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 5,166.50.
China's Shanghai Composite, which reopened after a long Lunar New Year holiday, rebounded from opening losses to rise 0.6% to 2,044.50.
In Bangkok, the SET50 index of blue chips ended at 876.69 points, up 1.42 points, with total trade value of 23.58 billion baht. The SETHD index of high-dividend shares rose 7.01 points to 1,069.37, with turnover of 10.57 billion baht. The Market for Alternative Investment lost 2.04 points to 365.95, with transaction value of 1.04 billion baht.
The five most active shares by value were Jasmine International (JAS), rising 0.15 baht to 7.30; PTT, up 11 baht to 286; PTTEP, down 2.50 baht 155; ADVANC, down 2 baht to 211; and PTTGC, up 75 satang to 72.75 baht.
In the currency markets, the baht completed the best week since October after last weekend's election did not trigger major violence and the sell-off in emerging-market assets abated.
"Some investors probably bought back the baht as we didn't hear news of major clashes and violence that we were concerned about before the election," said Toru Nishihama, an economist covering emerging markets at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo.
"However, there’s no improvement in the political situation in Thailand and I have no hope to see the end of the deadlock soon."
The baht was trading late Friday in Bangkok at 32.81 to the dollar, compared with 32.81/83 on Thursday and 33.00/02 a week earlier.
The local currency reached 32.73 on Thursday, the strongest level since Jan 17. It has dropped 5% since the protests began on Oct 31, a loss third to Indonesia’s rupiah and Malaysia’s ringgit among Asian currencies.