Bangkok - Thai shares jumped 2.89 per cent Monday on the election of opposition Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister, analysts said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand index ended at 437.06, up 12.27 points.

"Investors think the political picture is clearer now," said Mongkol Phuangphaetha, an analyst at Adkinson Securities.

An extraordinary session of Parliament on Monday selected Abhisit as Thailand's 27th prime minister in a 235-198 vote.

The vote ended weeks of political jockeying to head the next coalition government.

It was feared that another coalition headed by a proxy of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra would lead to more street protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which brought the last government to its knees when the movement occupied and closed down Bangkok's two international airports from November 26 to December 3.

The PAD has been supportive, so far, of a Democrat-led coalition. The Democrats have been in the opposition since 2001 when Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thais party first romped to power on the back of populist policies that won them the support of Thailand's urban and rural poor. (dpa)