Recap: US shares rallied to a record high on Thursday as tech stocks surged, before equity futures slipped on Friday as restrictions to curb the escalating Covid outbreak dampened investor sentiment. European stocks fell and Asian shares slipped from record highs as investors took profit.
The SET index moved in a range of 1,494.45 and 1,529.50 points this week before closing yesterday at 1,497.88, a decrease of 1.4% from the previous week, in daily turnover averaging 90.27 billion baht.
Retail investors were the only net buyers, at 7.79 billion baht. Institutional investors were net sellers of 3.95 billion, foreign investors sold 3.57 billion and brokerage firms offloaded 263.75 million baht worth of shares.
Newsmakers: Joe Biden signed more than a dozen executive orders just hours after taking office as the 46th president of the United States with an optimistic call for unity. The orders included a return to the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, while some other Trump administration policies were overturned on environmental or human-rights grounds.
- Mr Biden also unveiled a detailed Covid-19 roadmap to boost vaccinations and testing with all decisions to be guided by science not politics, after warning that the pandemic was entering its "deadliest period."
- The new US president's picks to lead economic and foreign policy signalled on Tuesday that there would be no letup in Washington's efforts to combat trade abuses by China.
- Bitcoin slumped 10% on Thursday to a 10-day low of $31,977 as the world's most popular cryptocurrency continued to retreat from the $42,000 record high hit on Jan 8.
- In one of his last acts as the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo on Tuesday declared that China is carrying out genocide against the Uighurs and other mostly Muslim people.
- China's GDP grew by 6.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 2.3% for the full year, making it the only major economy to grow at all after a strong rebound from the coronavirus crisis.
- China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd defended the efficacy of its Covid-19 shot, saying the vaccine now being rolled out from Indonesia to Brazil despite inconsistent data is more effective in preventing the disease if the two-dose regime is administered over a longer time frame.
- Shares in the internet giant Alibaba soared more than 8% Wednesday after billionaire founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance since November, ending weeks of speculation about his whereabouts after the company took a kicking from Chinese regulators.
- Malaysia unveiled a new 15-billion-ringgit (112 billion baht) assistance package to help the economy weather the impact from a fresh surge in coronavirus cases. The government also extended lockdown restrictions across most of the country to counter a rise in infections.
- The Philippines will buy 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc, a presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.
- Singapore will require all inbound travellers to take a Covid test upon arrival in the city-state from Jan 25 amid a resurgence of cases globally, the Ministry of Health said.
- Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the emergency use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, with 50,000 doses manufactured in Italy to arrive in February. Another 150,000 doses will delivered in March and April, with local production of some 26 million doses by Siam Biosciences expected start in May.
- The country is also awaiting the first of 2 million doses of CoronaVac, manufactured by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, in which a Chinese unit of Thailand's CP Group holds a 15% stake. The Chinese jab is still awaiting Thai FDA approval.
- Thailand's GDP growth could still reach 4-5% this year because recovery momentum will be supported by vaccines and fiscal stimulus, compensating for tourism losses, says Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith.
- Thailand's exports to the US look more promising, given expectations of friendlier trade policies of the new Biden administration, say trade officials at the Commerce Ministry.
- The Finance Ministry will seek cabinetapproval to use 300 billion baht remaining from the 1-trillion-baht emergency loan decree to fund the 3,500-baht "Rao Chana" (We Win) money transfer scheme for two months for nearly 40 million people.
- People without smartphones can sign up for the Rao Chana scheme at state banks that have branches nationwide, says Deputy Prime Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow.
- The Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand are preparing to amend a royal decree on soft loans in a bid to provide greater financial relief coverage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- Large SET-listed commercial banks posted a decline of more than 23% in net profits last year, mainly attributed to allocation of higher provisions for expected credit losses to cushion against rising uncertainties amid the pandemic crisis.
- The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is speeding up work on ways to calculate free-float shares of listed firms to more accurately to determine the actual amount of shares available to the public.
- The local cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub Online temporarily shut down its desktop trading platform on Tuesday, after the SEC gave the company five days to fix problems that lad led to three crashes amid spikes in activity.
- Upbit Thailand, a joint-venture digital asset exchange between Upbit APAC Pte and a group of Thai billionaires, launched operations on Wednesday following a rocky week for the market-leading Bitkub crypto platform.
- PTT Plc insists it will not delay the initial public offering of its oil retail unit PTT Oil and Retail (OR) despite the weak economy. Retail investors can subscribe to the shares from Jan 24 to Feb 2, followed by institutional investors from Feb 3-5.
- The OR IPO, expected to be one of the biggest ever in the country, will likely cause prices of other stocks in the energy sector to drop during the subscription period after institutional investors rebalance their portfolios, analysts say.
- Thai AirAsia will keep only one-fourth of the staff and ask the rest to take a leave-without-pay offer for four months, starting February, as the re-emerging coronavirus outbreak has dealt a heavy blow to the aviation sector.
Coming up: Germany will release the January business climate index on Monday. Australia will release fourth-quarter inflation data on Tuesday and the US will release January consumer confidence.
- Australia will announce December consumer business confidence on Wednesday, Germany will release the February consumer confidence outlook and the US will release December core durable goods orders.
- The US Federal Reserve will announce its first policy rate decision of the year on Thursday. Due the same day in Washington are preliminary fourth-quarter GDP data and December new home sales. Thailand will release December trade, private consumption and investment figures on Friday, Germany will release fourth-quarter GDP data and January unemployment.
Stocks to watch: UOB Kay Hian Securities recommends stocks that will benefit from surge in commodity prices and the recovery of global consumption, including STA, AMA, TVO, TU, CPF and GFPT. It recommends PTT, PTTGC and IVL as large commodity stocks, and SCGP, BDMS, MINT, CPALL and DCC for long-term investment.
Capital Nomura Securities recommends five SET50 stocks poised to have the biggest gains in weighting under a revised calculation method using free-float adjusted market capitalisation: BBL (+2.36%), SCC (+1.83%), SCB (+1.82%), KBANK (+1.52%) and BDMS (+1.25%). Five stocks expected to see a decrease in weighting are DELTA (-3.32%), AOT (-2.60%), GULF (-1.46%), ADVANC (-0.94%) and GPSC (-0.91%).
Technical view: Philip Securities sees support at 1,485 points and resistance 1,535. Finansia Syrus Securities sees support at 1,480 and resistance 1,530.
