The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index gained 9.72 points or 1.00 per cent to close at 979.00 points on Wednesday. The trade value was 38.15 billion baht.

Foreign central banks are beginning to compete each other to devalue currencies but the situation should not lead to a currency war as many predicted, Bank of Thailand assistant governor Suchada Kirakul said on Wednesday.

The baht continued to strengthen, trading at 29.95/97 baht to the US dollar this morning. The baht’s value was the strongest in 13 years.

Mrs Suchada said it was not unusual that the Thai currency appreciated to below 30 baht per US dollar this morning as the export sector had expanded 20 per cent due to the country’s strong economic fundamentals.

Foreign capital inflows continued entering the country despite the political instability. The world’s liquidity remained high, she said.

“The baht has been getting stronger in the past three years but exports have been growing continually as well. Although the baht’s value will determine the export situation, the key factor is the economies of our trading partners,” the assistant governor said.

The Singaporean dollar was now close to its value in 1987. Singapore was using the basket of currencies exchange rate system but the country allowed its currency to strengthen, she added.

Thai Airways International has agreed to award a contract worth 6 billion baht to Rolls-Royce to provide engines, maintenance services and spare parts for its new fleet of Airbus wide-body jets.

The deal with the British company is the largest in a series of contracts worth 7.83 billion baht for components for the seven twin-engine A330-300 aircraft.

Rolls-Royce outbid US rivals GE and Pratt & Whitney, according to sources with knowledge of the selection. The British company currently has about 120 engines in THAI jets, similar to the number supplied by GE.

The THAI board approved the Rolls-Royce contract on Sept 24 and the deal is expected to be formalised in November.

The contract includes the supply of 14 units of Trent 772 B engines worth about 2.74 billion baht, two spare units with engine stands (744 million), tools (32 million) and a 10-year service contract (2.35 billion baht).

Sources said THAI chose Rolls-Royce because of engine commonality with existing A330-300s in service. Trent 772 B engines power 54% of the world’s fleet of A330-300s.

Top five most active values were as follows;

PTTEP closed at 170.00 baht, up 10.00 baht or 6.25 per cent.

PTT closed at 302.00 baht, up 5.00 baht or 1.68 per cent.

BANPU closed at 742.00 baht, up 20.00 baht or 2.77 per cent.

KTB closed at 17.20 baht, up 0.10 baht or 0.58 per cent.

KBANK closed at 118.50 baht, up 2.50 baht or 2.16 per cent.

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Oct 6th, 2010and filed underAsia, Latest News, News & Events, Shayne Heffernan.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site