Thai royalists target stock-market analysts over rumors of king's health

Stock market sensitive to rumors about monarch

In this climate, rumors like those that roiled the stock market spread fast, says Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who runs Prachatai, a left-leaning news website.

"In a society with a lack of democracy and platforms for free expression and a right to access information, this is the way that people react," she says.

Thiranant Wipuchanin, one of the suspects arrested last week, had posted a translation of a Bloomberg News report on October 14 about the stock markets decline on concerns about the king's health.

The translation went up after the market had already closed so could not have effected stock prices, says Ms. Chiranuch.

The chairman of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) said Ms. Thiranant, a former securities company director, hadn't been trading, according to the Bangkok Post.

The other suspect detained on the same day reportedly posted a similar item and commentary on "Same Sky Books," another left-leaning website. The SET said it was reviewing his investment accounts.

Observers have questioned why the police have zeroed in on the two websites, both of which have already been investigated over alleged online royal slurs and have been accused by government officials of subversion.

"They're going willy-nilly at it, without seeming to have much of a case," says a Western diplomat.

As webmaster of Prachatai, Chiranuch was charged earlier this year under the computer-crimes act for failing to delete postings. She denies the charges.

Thailand's stock-market regulator is separately investigating transactions placed via two European brokerages in Hong Kong. In Thailand, as in many jurisdictions, it's illegal to knowingly spread rumors to make a profit in the stock market.

Former prime minister's allies turn up heat

Government officials have said that the rumors over the king's health may have been politically motivated. This is seen as a dig at former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 by the military and is living in exile in Dubai.

In recent weeks his allies have turned up the heat on Mr. Abhisit's government. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has appointed Mr. Thaksin as an economic adviser, infuriating the Thai government, and both countries have withdrawn their ambassadors in a tit-for-tat row.

Securities analysts say the uproar over the royal rumors sends a chilling signal to investors. Some argue that the drop in Thai shares may have been driven by profit-taking in a bull market as much as concerns over the king's health. Indeed, the following week saw other Asian markets give up some of their gains, just as Thailand's had.

"Arresting analysts for doing their jobs is probably not the best way to attract foreign capital," says a securities analyst in Hong Kong.

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