However, Black Tuesday created losers, winners and lost opportunities.

Chanjira Pinthongkum, a retail investor, said she snapped up shares when the SET index on Tuesday plummeted by 60-odd points.

"I anticipated share prices would be low when I bought them, but when the SET index sank even further I was shocked. I have never seen a fall like this in my life," she said.

The SET index on Tuesday tumbled almost 20 per cent at one point before recovering to close the day with a 14.84 per cent loss - the biggest single-day fall in the Thai stock market's history, prompted by the BOT's 30-per cent reserve withholding requirement.

The government later announced it would exclude investment in the stock market from the measure.

Chanjira said she was tempted to scoop up stocks because the fundamentals of listed companies remained unchanged, while the steep fall was ascribed to the central bank's measure.

"I think it was an opportunity to make a lucrative profit as share prices fell significantly. Today, I have been proved right. All the shares I bought yesterday rose significantly and I have already taken the profit because I think the risk still remains in the stock market. I don't know what will happen next," she said.

An unnamed retail investor said he bought shares in Kasikornbank, Erawan Group, and Home Product Centre.

"I bought shares even though I didn't know whether the authorities would exclude the stock market from the central bank's tough measure, but I snapped them up them because I thought the prices were very cheap. I will cut my losses if the share prices fall by 20 per cent," he said.

He pointed out that he was a long-term investor who always holds shares not less than two to three months, but he is likely to look for profit-taking by selling shares bought on Black Tuesday soon.

"I'm not sure if the stock market will fall sharply again," he commented.

Black Tuesday was not only an unhappy day for direct stock investors but also for those who invest indirectly through Retirement Mutual Funds (RMF) and Long-term Equity Funds (LTF).

Take Ayudhya Fund Management as an example. There were around Bt100 million and Bt40 million worth of orders to buy LTFs and RMFs, respectively, yesterday, compared with around Bt30 million-Bt50 million per day for LTFs and Bt10 million-Bt20 million per day for RMFs ahead of Black Tuesday.

"Selling was not an option yesterday," said a retail investor who chose to remain anonymous. "I didn't think about how deep the index was going to dive. I thought early in the morning about buying some stocks but I had only a very small amount of money, so I couldn't buy much.  I believe in the potential growth of the stocks I bought. So, in the short term the price may fluctuate. In the long term, I believe the prices I bought today are low enough to generate some profit."

Another retail investor said she regretted not buying any shares on Tuesday. "Since I have been investing in the stock market for 10 years, I had not seen a sharp fall like this before. I believe the stock market always rebounds after a steep decline," she said.

She did not buy shares on Tuesday as she wanted to assess the situation for a while.

"If the central bank does not revise the measure, the stock market will nosedive further. However, after I listened to Finance Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula's announcement, I knew at that moment that the stock market would certainly jump," she said.

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