[August 21, 2006] Baht expected to remain strong this week Tweet (FnWeb.com Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) fnWEB - Bangkok - August 21, 2006 - The Thai baht is anticipated to move within the range of Bt37.10 to Bt37.60 against the US dollar this week compared with Bt37.34 per dollar during late trade on Friday, according to a report issued by the Kasikorn Research Centre. The report said the baht could strengthen this week due to the lack of positive factors to support the US dollar, and that traders are less worried now regarding a further hike in the interest rate by the US Federal Reserve Bank. Traders are also awaiting new factors to stimulate trade apart from key US economic data--including housing sales and purchase orders for durable goods, it said, adding that the strengthening of the baht could be limited due to an intervention by the Bank of Thailand (BoT). Several negative factors had hit the strong baht last week, the report said. They included a market intervention by the BoT to keep the baht from being too strong and strong dollar profit-taking by exporters. The central bank said on Tuesday that it had intervened in the market after finding that the local currency was too strong. The baht edged down late last week, unlike the Japanese yen and other regional currencies which strengthened on the back of US inflation. However, the baht rose later following an interest rate hike by the Chinese central bank which helped pushed up the yen and the local currency. Copyright 2006 fnAsia Advisory Co., Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]