Thai Baht Rallies on Easing of Travel Restrictions

Thai baht gains upward momentum on easing of Thailand’s travel restrictions for vaccinated travelers from countries deemed to be of lower risks (high vaccination rate).

The baht gained over 1% on Tuesday to 33.518. Brightened outlook of the tourist depended country led the market to rally on bullish bets. However, according to some market strategist the reopening does not add much surprise to the country’s asset classes including the Thai baht.

Benchmark index SET climbed 0.67% on optimism with Asia Aviation (AAV TB) surged as high as 5.59% and Bumrungrad Hospital (BH TB) which has the highest exposure to foreign medical tourists jumped 2.85%.

Assistant governor of Bank of Thailand earlier said with gradual rebound of tourism and 70% of the country’s population fully inoculated (two does) by December would lead to economic recovery in the last three months of the year.

Bank of Thailand also came in recue to stop further sliding of the baht past 30 by selling $2.01 billion in the end ending October 1, according to Kasikorn Securities estimates.