Baht near 2-year high

Thai baht is near its 2-year high against the greenback today, thanks to inflows to the bond and stock markets.

The currency climbed to the strongest level in 19 month. The baht rose 0.3 per cent to 29.63 per dollar as of 3.10 pm in Bangkok, the biggest advance since January 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The currency touched 29.57, the strongest level since August 2011, and has gained 3.2 per cent this year, the most in Asia. On Monday, foreign bond net-buys totalled US$156 million.

The SET index today ended 0.97 points or 0.06 per cent lower, to 1,576.68 points on brisk turnover of Bt85.97 billion. So far this month, foreign net-buys exceeded Bt5 billion.