Bond selling puts pressure on Thai baht
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The Thai baht has continued the nosedive on Monday though the stock market has stopped bleeding with the first gain in this year.
According to Thai Bond Market Association, foreign investors were net-sellers for Thai bonds. Data showed that their net sales on January 3 alone were over Bt3 billion.
Demonstrators plan to surround government ministries and occupy 20 major traffic intersections in Bangkok on January 13 until caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra agrees to step down and allow an unelected council to reform the electoral system.
At 4.31pm, the Thai baht slid to 33.12 per US dollar, the slowest since February 2010.
At 8.18am, the baht stood at 33.07 per dollar, 0.64 per cent weaker from the end of last year. Compared to last Friday, the baht also weakened by 0.21 per cent.
Unlike the situation in the bond market, foreign investors have stopped their sell-off of Thai shares. In the first two trading days of this year, they turned net-buyers, with net-buy position of Bt595 million. Their net-sell on January 6 was as high as Bt1.34 billion.
Last month, they sold shares more than their purchases by over Bt40 billion.
After losing in the first two days of this year, the SET index on Monday recouped some losses. It ended 6.22 points higher or 0.51 per cent, to 1,230.84 points. Today's gain limited the year-to-date loss at 5.70 per cent.
The index tumbled hard on January 2, losing 5.23 per cent. On January 3, it lost another 0.50 per cent.
