The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is on its way to recovery this week as the coronavirus outbreak slows down in the US and Europe early April.
Dow Jones futures traded up by 3.11 per cent on Monday morning. On the same day, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were also up by 3.12 and 3.48 respectively. The slight recovery came after major averages in the US fell to its third weekly decline.
Even the drop in oil prices did not deter traders. US’ West Texas Intermediate crude fell 6.49 per cent on Sunday to settle at US$26.50 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude lost 4.19 per cent to settle at $32.68 per barrel. The drop came after OPEC+ announced it was delaying its meeting initially scheduled for Monday.
Investors on Wall Street are hoping for a better week as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York, the epicenter of the US outbreak, is “plateauing”, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Although Cuomo reported 594 new deaths on Sunday, bringing the total to 4,159 deaths in New York, the number of deaths had actually decreased. The number of hospitalized patients was also down for the first time in a week.
President Donald Trump said that he saw “light at the end of the tunnel” as cases are “leveling off” in US hotspots. But “in the days ahead, America will endure the peak of this pandemic,” he added.
Italy, Spain and France have all recorded lower death tolls. In Italy, the biggest outbreak site in Europe, there were 525 new deaths in the past 24 hours, which was the lowest recorded number of fatalities in over two weeks.
With hope returning to the US and Europe, the positive sentiments are already shoring up most of the Asian stock markets on Monday morning. Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded up 2.51 per cent. South Korea’s KOSPI was up by 1.93 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.67 per cent. Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times was also up by 1.72 per cent.
Trinity Securities expects the SET to test the 1220 point mark this week with 1050 point on the lower end of the psychological barrier. However, the SET will continue to be influenced by the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the outflow from Thailand’s bond and equity market has reached 233 billion baht as foreign investors are continuing to pull their assets out of Thailand. As of April 3, foreign investors have sold more 121 billion baht worth of Thai bonds and 112 billion baht worth of Thai equities.
This is one of the reasons why the baht has traded down by 10 per cent so far this year, from 30.02 baht per US dollar at the end of 2019 to around 33 baht.