SET climbs 12.95 points

Thai stocks rose nearly 1% on Friday as big funds bought blue chips to dress up their books ahead of the end of the quarter.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index gained 12.95 points from Thursday to close at 1,368.90, an increase of 0.6% from the previous Friday's close of 1,360.50. Turnover was 32.48 billion baht, with 4.08 billion shares traded.

Foreign investors led the way, buying 2.09 billion baht more in Thai shares than they sold. Most of the gains took place in the final hour of trading as the index surged to 1,377.88 before easing back.

Apichat Poobunjirdkul, senior vice-president  of Tisco Securities, said window-dressing by institutional investors gave a boost to the market yesterday.

Stocks could advance further next week, he added, if Saturday's mass rally of anti-government protesters and Sunday's Senate election go ahead without any violence.

Stocks are moving up now but quarterly corporate results next month could provide a reality check. (Post File Photo)

The local market is now up 5.4% from the end of 2013 and has proved surprisingly resilient despite the country's protracted political stalemate.

Foreign investors have been net buyers on the SET this month of 10.44 billion baht but for the year to date they remain net sellers of 24.6 billion.

Local institutions were net buyers on Friday of 419.84 billion baht and brokers bought 2.37 billion. Individual investors were net sellers of 4.88 billion baht. 

The next hurdle for the local market will be quarterly earnings reports. Most of the country's banks, which will report their results in mid-April, have already revised down loan-growth targets in light of slowing economic activity.

The Finance Ministry cut its 2014 economic-growth prediction on Thursday to 2.6% from an earlier target of 3.1%. It said the failure to form a new government may delay approval of the budget until the second quarter of 2015. The fiscal year begins on Oct 1.

World stock markets mostly rose on Friday as expectations grew that China would move to counter its economic slowdown.

European markets opened on an upbeat note, with Britain's FTSE 100 adding 0.4%. Germany's DAX jumped 0.7% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.3%.

On Wall Street, Dow futures rose 0.3% to 16,223 and S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% to 1,846.70.

In Asia, window dressing ahead of the fiscal year-end helped Japanese shares rebound from early losses after the government reported that household spending fell in February, suggesting consumer demand is not rising as much as expected ahead of an April 1 sales tax increase.

The Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% to close at 14,696.03 and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2% to 1,981. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 22,065.53. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% to 2,041.71 as major banks reported profits in line with analysts' forecasts.

In Bangkok, the SET50 index of blue chips ended at 929.84 points, up 10.78, on turnover of 25.29 billion baht, and the SET100 rose 22.75 points to 2,040.85 in trade worth 29.26 million. The SETHD index of high-dividend shares rose 11.80 points to 1,113.51, with turnover of 11.87 billion baht. The Market for Alternative Investment gained 2.46 points to 395.03, with transaction value of 654 million baht.

In the currency markets, the baht had the biggest weekly loss in more than a month on concern that delays in forming a new government will deepen an economic slowdown.

The baht rose slightly on Friday on speculation that exporters would repatriate overseas income toward the month's end. It was trading late Friday in Bangkok around 32.53 to the dollar, compared with 32.57/60 on Thursday and 32.37/39 a week earlier.

"Uncertainty about when the new government can be formed was weighing on the baht," said Kozo Hasegawa, a currency trader at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. "Speculation of Japanese fund repatriation toward the financial year-end on March 31 also helped drag the baht down. But we may see some baht demand from local exporters toward month-end."

Bank of Thailand spokeswoman Roong Mallikamas said the baht may have weakened more than other currencies in the region as foreign, especially Japanese, companies were sending back money home at the end of accounting period.

Government bonds advanced this week. The yield on the 3.625% sovereign notes due in June 2023 dropped 10 basis points to 3.7%.