Baht falls further to $/31.20
Play
The Thai baht today weakened further against US dollar, as foreign capital is leaving Thailand en masse.
At 8.10am today, the baht opened at 31.20, the lowest since September 2012. From the end of May, the currency has weakened nearly 3 per cent.
The currency yesterday fell 1.2 per cent to 31.08 per US dollar as of 3.30pm, the biggest slide since May 10.
The Thai stock market today continued to suffer a loss. At 2.50pm, the SET index lost 8.04 points or 0.57 per cent to 1,394.15 points.
In the morning session, the Thai stock market lost 0.94 per cent. The biggest fall in the region was witnessed by Indonesia, 3.19 per cent; followed by the Philippines, 2.73 per cent; South Korea, 1.54 per cent; Taiwan, 1.47 per cent; and Hong Kong, 0.98 per cent.
The US Federal Reserve on Thursday is putting investors on notice that the central bank is prepared to begin phasing out one of the most aggressive easing programs in its century-long history later this year.
The Fed will probably taper its $85 billion in monthly bond buying later in 2013 and halt purchases around mid-2014 as long as the world's largest economy performs in line with Fed projections, Bernanke told reporters yesterday in Washington after a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.
