Thai shares unaffected by Morgan Stanley's downgrade

As of 3.27pm, the SET Index rose 9.55 points or 0.85 per cent to 1,129.80 points, in line with regional rises after US economic reports beat estimates and optimism increased that Greece will get a second debt bailout, boosting demand for riskier assets. There were reports that the European Central Bank is swapping its Greek bonds for new securities to protect from losses in a debt restructuring.
Euphemism drove the Thai market, though Morgan Stanley announced on Friday that it cut Thailand to underweight from equal weight. It had raised its rating on the Taiwan stock market to equal weight from underweight, citing improving earnings and good prospects in its tech sector this year. The broker also said in a research note that it had upgraded Indonesia to overweight from equal weight, noting its relatively low valuation and that it was technically oversold. It raised Malaysia to overweight from equal weight, the Philippines to equal weight from overweight and South Africa also to equal weight from overweight.
Morgan Stanley attributed the change in view to a rise in oil price, which led it to raise the 2012 estimate for Brent from US$100 per barrel to $110. High oil prices would affect Thailand and the Philippines, which are major oil importers.