Friday the 13th: Thai bourse uses “circuit breaker” as coronavirus batters Thai stocks
The Stock exchange of Thailand (SET) pulled the “circuit breaker” for the second time in as many days, to suspend trade between 9:59 and 10:29am after the index fell by over 10% this morning. A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities said that move was due to panic selling after US President Donald Trump suspended travel from Europe for 30 days, and the number of confirmed of Covid-19 infections in Thailand increased to 75.
“Foreign investors made net sales of Bt1.929 billion in the stock market and Bt13.646 billion in the bond market, while there are 28,243 net long TFEX contracts.”
The analyst says he expects the SET Index to slide to between 1,050 and 1,080, due to lack of any positive sentiment, causing trading to follow global trends.
“Most global stocks dropped due to uncertainty among investors following the Covid-19 outbreak, which has intensified in Europe and the US.”
“We advise investors who cannot take risks to hold cash and monitor the situation, while those who can take risks should buy stocks for short-term profit taking, especially stocks whose price have fallen sharply and pay high dividends regularly.”
Given the current situation, the analyst recommend three groups of stocks:
- Defensive stocks which pay high dividends, such as ADVANC, INTUCH, and TTW.
- Retail stocks, which gained buying power after the government returned the electricity metre insurance for a total amount of 30 billion baht, such as CPALL, HMPRO, and BJC.
- Financial stocks, which benefit from the interest rate cut, such as MTC, SAWAD, and KTC.
SOURCE: The Nation
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