Baht continues to rise with low liquidity
The baht on Friday (March 27) opened at Bt32.63 to the US dollar, strengthening from Thursday’s close of Bt32.77, and would be valued at between Bt32.55 to Bt32.85 per US dollar, SCB Securities senior market strategist Jitipol Puksamatanan said.
On Thursday night, the S&P500 and Euro Stoxx 50 rose by 6.2 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively, due to investors’ expectations of a US financial bailout.
Meanwhile, the number of initial jobless claims increased in the US recently from 280,000 to 3.2 million this week. “If Covid-19 is not contained soon, total US unemployment would rise by 9 per cent, similar to the economic crisis in 2008,” the strategist said. “This factor caused the VIX Index to stay at 61 per cent, while bond yields worldwide moved in a narrow range.”
The US 10-Year Treasury was traded at 0.83 per cent, while German bond yields contracted by 0.38 per cent.
In the currency market, the Norwegian krone, the UK pound, and the New Zealand dollar saw the most increase in value.
At the same time, the baht has moved with low liquidity, and mainly in line with the US dollar. “The Bank of Thailand has controlled the fluctuation well. Within two days, the currency rose by 0.58 per cent, near the Chinese yuan,” he added.