Thai shares rebound after big midday tumble

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index was at 574.42 points when trading ended for the midday break, or 5.08 per cent, but it ended the day at 600.38, down 4.76 points or 0.8 per cent.

"Everyone is confused about what happened," said Mongkol Phuangphaetha, a stock analyst at Adkinsons Securities. "Brokers were advising people to sell all morning and then suddenly Hong Kong staged a rebound and local investors followed their lead."

Similar to the SET, the Hang Seng Index ended its morning session down 7.38 per cent but rebounded sharply to end the day down just 4.73 points, or 0.03 per cent.

The recovery was led by heavy buying of China Mobile shares and Chinese banking stocks. Turnover was a robust 102 billion Hong Kong dollars (13 billion US dollars).

Like most bourses in Asia, the SET and Heng Seng Index has been hard hit by the Lehman Brothers collapse and AIG bailout in the US, as both financial giants had huge operations in Asia.