Morgan Stanley's Andy Xie cut his estimate of Thai gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 2.4 per cent, from an earlier figure of 3.5 per cent; and his estimate for next year to 4 per cent, from 4.5 per cent before.

Dow Jones Newswires quoted him as saying, "We believe the final outcome is far from clear. A fresh round of uncertainty looks set to further dampen consumer and business sentiment."

Citigroup also revised downwards its GDP forecast for this year, from 4.5 per cent to 4.3 per cent, in the belief that both investment and tourism will fall in the fourth quarter.

However, Jimmy Koh, head of research at United Overseas Bank (UOB), decided to restore his bank's Thai GDP growth forecast of 4.5 per cent for this year and 4.2 per cent for next year, after a better-than-expected market reaction to the coup.

"Given the very marginal correction on the equity market and the very calm domestic environment, we may not see any sharp adjustment in consumption [like we had expected]," said Koh.

In its initial response to the military takeover, UOB trimmed its GDP growth projection to 4 per cent for this year and 3.9 per cent for next year.

RS sheds debt

RS Plc's shareholders have approved the company's plan to use share premiums worth Bt310 million and Bt5.4 million of its legal reserves to write off its accumulated debt.

As of June 30, its accumulated debt totalled Bt315.4 million.

The company said shareholders also approved a reduction in RS Plc's par value, from Bt5 a share to Bt1, in order to boost trading liquidity.