Market losses continue
Stock Exchange of Thailand President Charamporn Jotikasthira attributed the market fall mainly to the political uncertainty in Greece, which could affect the efforts in addressing the eurozone crisis.
The SET Index today lost 13.32 points to end at 1,171.23 points, on turnover of Bt33.39 billion. Since May 3, when the index hit a new 16-year high at 1,240.0331.04, it lost a total of 68.8 points or 5.55 per cent.
Charamporn said that the Thai bourse moved in the same direction as markets in the region. While the Thai market fell 1.2 per cent, regional bourses showed losses in the range of 1.5-3 per cent.
"Investors should closely monitored the development and consequences and diversified their investment appropropriately. I remain confident that the Thai market's fundamentals are strong, reflecting through large-cap stocks' profitability and growth story in the first quarter," he said.
Greece's failure to form a government is leading to new elections next month, sending fears that it may take an exit from the eurozone.
The eurozone is now beleaguered with mounting uncertainties. The European Union revealed today that the zone still logged a trade surplus with the rest of the world at 8.6 billion euros (US$10.9 billion) in March, improving its downward-revised surplus of 2.3 billion euros in February.
However, eurozone inflation at 2.6 per cent in April marked the 17th month during which inflation has exceeded its target. The figure provided by the European Union's Eurostat agency remained well above the European Central Bank's medium-term target of below but close to two per cent.
High inflation may dampen the recovery prospects as consumer' purchasing power is squeezed.
