Thai shares close sharply lower on profit-taking, Wall Street

Thai shares close sharply lower on profit-taking, Wall Street - UPDATE

	Published : Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:05 By : Agencies Print this Story

BANGKOK (Thomson Financial) - Thai share prices closed sharply lower Wednesday, in line with regional stocks, on profit-taking in big-caps following overnight losses on Wall Street.

Selling was substantial after the benchmark index surged over the past week on strong regional inflows.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index slumped 12.17 points or 1.42 percent to 846.28 points and the blue chip SET 50 dropped 10.55 points to 606.28.

Losers topped gainers 268 to 117, with 92 stocks unchanged, on volume of 6.1 billion shares worth 34.4 billion baht.

The baht hit a fresh 10-year high against the dollar, closing at 33.33-34 to the greenback from Tuesday's close of 33.48-50. Against the euro, the Thai unit was at 45.81-89 from 45.58-80.

The index was down after a week of sharp rises, which saw Thai stocks reach their highest level since December 1996, just before the central bank floated the baht on July 2, 1997, sparking the regional economic meltdown.

Analysts said the Thai market closed lower Wednesday after US stocks slid on worries over the housing market, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 1.09 percent on Tuesday.

'We saw profit-taking across the board, led by big-cap banking and energy stocks which fell 2.0 and 1.6 percent, respectively,' said Adisak Kammoon, vice president of KGI Securities.

'A market correction will possibly continue, as today's selling was substantial,' he said.

Also Wednesday, military-appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont expressed concern at the sharp rise of the baht.

'The baht has risen because of huge inflows into Asia. We have to closely monitor it to make sure that the inflows and the outflows do not happen too fast,' Surayud told reporters.

But the former general reassured people that the strong baht was unlikely to trigger another economic crisis.

Thailand's top energy firm PTT lost 6.00 baht to 302.00 and its unit PTT Exploration and Production decreased 4.00 baht to 123.00.

The top lender Bangkok Bank was down 2.00 baht at 131.00, and third largest Kasikorn Bank also dropped 2.50 baht to 85.00.

Thai Airways International slipped 0.25 baht to 43.25, while the largest mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service dipped 0.50 baht to 93.00.

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Thai shares close sharply lower on profit-taking, Wall Street - UPDATE