Bloomberg reported that Banpu Pcl rose to a record high in Bangkok trading after JPMorgan Chase & Co raised the stock's price estimate by 12%.

The shares gained 1.5% to THB 558, the fifth best performer on the SET50 Index, a measure of 50 largest publicly traded companies.

Banpu's share price forecast was increased to THB 713 from THB 635 by Mr Sukit Chawalitakul, a JPMorgan analyst, who said higher coal prices will boost the company's earnings.

Mr Sukit wrote in a note to clients that "Higher coal prices are clearly very positive for Banpu." He said that higher coal demand in China and India will increase the global coal prices.

It may be noted that Banpu's shares have more than doubled this year compared with a 58% gain in the benchmark SET Index.

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)