BOT role seen in slight weakening of baht
The baht opened at 30.28 to the US dollar on Tuesday, weakening from 30.26 at close on Monday.
The Thai currency is likely to move between 30.18 and 30.38, said Jitipol Puksamatanan, senior director of the chief investment office at SCB Securities.
On Monday night, the S&P 500 and Stoxx 600 fell by 0.9 and 1 per cent, respectively.
Also, the price of WTI crude oil and gold dropped by 0.7 per cent.
Jitipol explained that investors had sold their assets for cash.
This situation increased the US and German Ten-Year Treasury yields by 1 and 1.5 basis point to 0.85 and minus 0.57 per cent.
In Thailand, the baht weakened slightly after the Bank of Thailand (BOT) possibly acted to control the exchange rate. However, several currency traders believed that the BOT measures will not sharply obstruct capital flows into the country.
In the next phase, Jitipol said that Thai stocks could be sold for speculation like in the US. The movement would pressure investors to sell their risk assets and later weaken the baht.