Foreign investors could guide baht direction in the short-term

The Thai currency is expected to move between 30.80 and 31.00 on Thursday, said Jitipol Puksamatanan, head of Markets Strategy at SCB Securities.
The financial market, he said, was in a fragile state, as evident in the slide of the S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 600 that decreased by 2.6 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile the Brent crude oil price was down by 5.3 per cent.
This situation was caused by investors’ concerns about Covid-19’s impact on the economy. Besides, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) signalled that the global economy would contract by 4.9 per cent, this year.
The IMF forecast lowered the US Ten-Year Treasury to 0.67 per cent, while the German bond yield fell to -0.44 per cent.
However, the market situation strengthened the dollar by 0.5 per cent, the same level as three days ago.
Regarding the baht, he said investors in the short-term must monitor foreign investors' sale of risk assets of Thailand. Their sales would weaken the baht, the strategist added.
He also said that the Volatility Index of the baht has seen a huge decrease due to the market's belief that Asian countries can deal with the virus better than the US.