Thai shares rise despite foreign sell-offs

It gained 6.70 points or 0.53 per cent, after two days of losses due mainly to sell-offs of energy and communications stocks by foreign investors and local institutional investors. 

Foreign net sales totalled Bt1.795 billion today, boosting the combined net sales in the first three days of this year to Bt6.64 billion.

Tisco Securities noted that the Thai stock market should regain its loss last year but volatility would remain high. It said that the impact from the US upward interest cycle should remain for 3-4 months. Meanwhile, possible downward revision in listed companies' earnings in 2015 and 2016 could also dampen the sentiment.

Today,  Asian shares mostly fell Wednesday but Chinese markets rallied, with reports Beijing had spent billions buying shares after a more than seven per cent decline in the first two trading days of the year.

The South Korean won sank against the dollar after North Korea announced it had conducted its fourth nuclear test, although there was little wider impact on regional equities -- with one analyst saying dealers were looking at "more serious issues".

Shanghai finally chalked up some gains as the country's central bank pumped cash into the beleaguered financial system. Experts said it was used to shore up stocks to avert a repeat of last summer's rout that saw trillions of dollars wiped off valuations.

The People's Bank of China also set its daily yuan reference rate against the dollar at its lowest level in almost five years, according to Bloomberg News.

But analysts warned the moves would cause more problems down the line as China's economy, the world's second biggest and a key driver of global growth, heads for its worst annual performance in a quarter of a century.

Stocks in Asia, which swung wildly Monday and Tuesday, extended a miserable start to 2016 -- hit by another round of weak Chinese economic indicators, sinking oil prices and rising tensions in the Middle East.

Tokyo sank one per cent as exporters were hurt by a strong yen, Hong Kong lost one per cent, Sydney shed 1.2 per cent and Taipei dropped 1.1 per cent.

But Shanghai ended 2.3 per cent higher.

"There's word spreading in the market that state funds are buying, but the idea is to hold up the market, not to bolster it by a large margin," said Dai Ming, a fund manager at Hengsheng Asset Management Co. in Shanghai. 

"The market has basically stabilised after the tumble and investors are waiting for further policies that will boost sentiment."

Regulators had closed trading early Monday because a seven per cent fall triggered a new circuit breaker put in place during the summer to prevent sharp losses or gains.

Investors were partly spooked by this Friday's expiration of a ban imposed in July on certain investors selling stocks.