Thai shares rise to over 1-year high after election
Baht strengthens to more than 1-week high
KOSPI rises nearly 4%, Taiwan shares up 2.5%
Investors eye Singapore budget on Thursday
By Sneha Kumar
Feb 9 (Reuters) - Thailand's share market jumped over 3% on Monday after the prime minister's party won a clear victory in a general election, fuelling hopes of greater political stability, while equity markets in South Korea and Taiwan rebounded after last week's slide.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's Bhumjaithai Party was far ahead of opposition parties, according to preliminary results released by the election commission, raising the prospect that a more stable coalition could help end a long period of instability.
Thailand's SET Index .SETI rose as much as 3.5% to its strongest level in more than a year, while the baht THB=TH appreciated 1.3% to 31.25 per U.S. dollar, its highest level in more than a week.
Bhumjaithai Party's campaign pledges included the implementation of a consumer subsidy programme and ditching an agreement with Cambodia over maritime claims.
Poon Panichpibool, a markets strategist at Krung Thai Bank, said the election result could boost confidence among international investors and lead to a potential continuation of pre-poll foreign inflows.
"I think in the next couple of months, we should see rising consumer confidence in Thailand based on expectations of incoming short-term stimulus from the newly elected government," he said.
In Japan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's coalition swept to a historic election win on Sunday, clearing the way for promised tax cuts and military spending.
Meanwhile, South Korea's KOSPI index .KS11 rose nearly 4% on Monday, recovering losses from last week's 2.6% drop and Taiwan's benchmark index .TWII climbed 2.5% to its highest since late January.
Both of the tech-heavy indexes had come under pressure following a global tech selloff after artificial intelligence firm Anthropic unveiled a new legal tool for its Claude chatbot, raising worries over broader disruption to the information technology and software services sector.
Back in Southeast Asia, Indonesian stocks .JKSE were flat after losing nearly 12% over the last two weeks.
Investor confidence has been battered by MSCI's warning of a potential downgrade to frontier-market status and Moody's lowering the country's credit rating outlook.
Philippine shares .PSI and Malaysia's benchmark index .KLSE rose around 0.8% each.
Elsewhere, Singapore shares .STI rose 0.7%, with gains limited by a 0.7% drop in shares of the country's biggest bank, DBS Group DBSM.SI.
The bank said it expected to report a slightly lower net interest income in 2026 compared to last year on assumptions of a Singapore overnight rate average of around 1.25%, two Federal Reserve rate cuts and a stronger Singapore dollar.
The Singapore dollar SGD= was flat on the day.
Markets are anticipating Singapore will unveil a fiscally conservative budget on Thursday, focusing on balancing robust growth with longer-term fiscal discipline.
Taiwan's dollar TWD=TP, the Malaysian ringgit MYR= and the Philippine peso PHP= were up around 0.2% each.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Yield on Indonesia's 10-year benchmark bonds ID10YT=RR at 6.4442%
** Singapore investment commitments rise in 2025 as China's share soars
** Contender for Bank of Korea governor backs higher property taxes to contain inflation
Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0427 GMT | ||||||
COUNTRY | FX RIC | FX DAILY % | FX YTD % | INDEX | STOCKS DAILY % | STOCKS YTD % |
Japan | JPY= | +0.34 | -0.01 | .N225 | +4.26 | 12.37 |
China | CNY=CFXS | +0.03 | +0.78 | .SSEC | 1.17 | 3.64 |
India | INR=IN | +0.12 | -0.74 | .NSEI | 0.39 | -1.29 |
Indonesia | IDR= | +0.00 | -1.13 | .JKSE | 0.77 | -7.52 |
Malaysia | MYR= | +0.23 | +3.05 | .KLSE | 0.85 | 4.01 |
Philippines | PHP= | +0.20 | +0.62 | .PSI | 0.73 | 6.35 |
S.Korea | KRW=KFTC | -0.33 | -1.93 | .KS11 | 3.84 | 25.40 |
Singapore | SGD= | +0.02 | +1.18 | .STI | 0.65 | 6.90 |
Taiwan | TWD=TP | +0.22 | -0.54 | .TWII | 2.49 | 12.47 |
Thailand | THB=TH | +0.75 | +0.66 | .SETI | 3.35 | 11.09 |
(Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed)
((Sneha.kumar@thomsonreuters.com))