Stocks down on poor economic outlook
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The Thai stock market ended lower today due to the lacklustre third-quarter economic growth figure as well as corporate earnings, said a brokerage house.
The SET index lost 6.81 points to end the day at 1,569.07 points, on turnover of Bt40.4 billion.
The National Economic and Social Development Board today revealed that the economy expanded by 0.6 per cent, well below forecasts.
It attributed the lacklustre growth chiefly to exports, of whcih value dropped by 1.7 per cent in the first nine months.
Asia Plus Securities said in a research note that the quarterly low growth would pull down the annualised growth rate. If Thailand's economy is to expand by 1.5 per cent this year, growth in the fourth quarter must be 5.5 per cent "which is highly difficult".
The NESDB today revised down the growth projection for the whole year from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent. This would be possible if the fourth-quarter growth figure is 3.5 per cent.
The brokerage house was also concerned about corporate earnings. Listed companies reported combined earnings of only Bt192 billion in the third quarter, which dropped by 6.3 per cent from the same period last year. Corporate earnings in the first nine months rose by only 0.43 per cent to Bt610 billion.
The house consequently revised down the annualised earnings forecast by Bt33.8 billion to Bt840 billion for the entire year, showing only a 1.49 per cent increase from last year.
