Halister News

--STEPHEN TRELOAR

--JAKE LLOYD-SMITH

(Bloomberg) -- Baht advances to a two-year high as dollar extends overnight decline after Fed signaled inflation remains persistently below its target. 

• Ministry of Finance holds media briefing on June economic conditions and may revise growth forecast, slated for 11am Bangkok time
• THB is second-best performing Asian currency in 2017 and this is likely due to less intervention by BOT, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in note received Wednesday
  • Better exports and lower oil prices are feeding into stronger baht
  • BofAML recommends receiving swaps, is long bonds and long THB; risks are higher oil, hawkish developed-market central banks and aggressive intervention by BOT
• Thai banks continue to face asset quality pressure stemming from vulnerabilities in the small to medium business sector, unsecured retail loan sectors, and are exposed to risks in the highly indebted household sector, Fitch Ratings said Wednesday
• Thailand’s rising loan defaults has no impact on market: Stock Exchange of Thailand
• Nation tightens consumer loan rule to cut household debt: BOT
• State agencies will spend ~17b baht ($509m) on projects that consume natural rubber as part of govt’s policy to boost local demand, according to statement from farm ministry
• Global investors bought net 2.8b baht of local bonds Wednesday, biggest net inflow since June 28, according to TBMA data; they sold net $27.3m of domestic stocks: exchange data
• BOT to offer 20b baht of 20-day bills Thursday
• Baht climbs 0.3% to 33.388/USD as of 7:30am in Bangkok after reaching 33.34 earlier, the strongest level since May 2015
• Yield on 2.125% govt bonds due December 2026 steady at 2.488%

To contact the reporter on this story: Yumi Teso in Bangkok at yteso1@bloomberg.net