The SET Index gained 2.47 per cent in the past two weeks to close at 1,617.89 on May 16, outperforming regional markets. The market had been flooded with first-quarter corporate result announcements, which were largely in line with consensus estimates and continued to reflect positive medium-term earnings prospects.

The Finance Ministry is pointing a finger at commercial banks, accusing them of being behind the steady rise of the baht this year.

Certainly, we are living in interesting times. The baht suddenly became a market darling early this year - attracting massive flows from foreign investors, easily outpacing other regional currencies, becoming one of the best performing currencies in the world, and strengthening against the US dollar to levels not seen since 1997.

Property Perfect plans to issue a property fund worth Bt1.07 billion in the second quarter of this year after its dormitories, Uniloft in Chiang Mai and Salaya at Nakhon Pathom, are completed and start operations this year.

PTT Exploration and Production's proposed hybrid securities worth upto US$1 billion or Bt30 billion are rated "BBB-" by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and "Baa3" by Moody's Investors Service.

Thailand should not cling to a target for the logistics cost-to-GDP ratio as infrastructure is for logistics facilitation, not for reducing logistics cost, says Assoc Prof Ruth Banomyong, director of the Centre for Logistics Research at Thammasat Business School. In an exclusive interview with Nation Group, he criticises the country's strategic plan to take out a Bt2-trillion loan for infrastructure development, targeting to reduce the ratio by at least two percentage points.

RHB Bank Thailand plans to open two branches upcountry in areas such as industrial estates to serve both Thai and foreign companies.

Eagles Air and Sea (Thailand) Co, a fully integrated logistics service provider, is eyeing Myanmar to boost its revenues after claiming success in Singapore.

Sound business opportunities remain in Singapore's property development market, as demand is set to rise further on the back of Asia's growing prominence in the global economy, according to a major player.

Dept to push IT system