Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij denied on Thursday afternoon an accusation by the red- shirts that his ministry had used tax revenue to buy shares, Thai media reported.

According to Bangkok Post online, Korn Chatikavanij said Thai stocks kept rising because investors are confident that the mass anti-government demonstration by the red-shirts, supporters of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), will not escalate to unrest.

In addition, investors also believe Thailand has strong economic fundamentals and the confidence helped push the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index up, he said.

He was responding to accusation made by about 30 red-shirts earlier in the morning outside the office of the SET. They rallied and demanded the SET make an investigation into whether the minister of finance had used tax revenue to buy shares this week.

The red-shirts were wondering why the share prices kept going up for several days during the week, despite the mass anti- government rally.

The red-shirts movement has staged the rally to topple the Abhisit administration since March 12, urging the the prime minister to dissolve the parliament and to call a fresh election.