The SET index fluctuated greatly on Monday afternoon, plunging to the lowest 1,375.99 which was 138.96 points lower than Friday’s close or 9.17%, almost triggered the circuit breaker if the index drops by 10%.
The market dived 24.45 points (1.61%) from Friday’s close of 1,514.95 points at opening. The SET remained in the negative zone the whole morning, closing midday at a plunge of 44.74 points (2.95%).
In the afternoon session, the SET dropped to its lowest point around 3.30pm and then rebounded to 1,463.80 points at 4.24pm, but still down by 51.15 points, or 3.38%.
Analysts from several brokerage houses attributed the wide fluctuation of the index to a few factors.
Asia Plus’s research division said the situation stemmed from old rumour,s the restructuring of fuel prices, the forced sell of some shares and the continuing slide of crude oil prices, which would impact the operations result of listed oil firms.