Thailand's military coup weighed on Asian stock markets today and kept the embattled Thai currency baht under pressure, while the yen firmed as investors bet the Federal Reserve would keep US interest rates on hold.
After a bloodless coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's army chief vowed today to clean up the country's political landscape and return "power to the people" as soon as possible.
Barring any deterioration, analysts expect the Thai fallout to be short-lived, believing a repeat of the 1997/98 Asia financial crisis was very unlikely given the region's much sounder economic fundamentals.
Coup leaders ordered the Thai stock market to close for a day today, but Thai firms traded in Singapore, such as brewer Thai Beverage, lost 3.45 per cent. "I suspect the market will fall on the first day that it opens.
But (the coup) does open the possibility of ending this (political) impasse that we have had recently," said Garry Evans, pan-Asian equity strategist at HSBC.
"Any fall in the market will actually be treated by investors as quite an interesting buying opportunity, not least since Thailand is the cheapest market in Asia at the moment on a forward PE (Price Earnings) of 9.8 times."