Thai shares not spared from global jitters
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The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index lost 12.75 points or 1.02 per cent in morning trade on Monday, following continued drop in Chinese markets.
At noon, the index was at 1,231.43 points on turnover of just Bt14.6 billion.
In the first week of 2016, it lost 3.40 per cent. Foreign net sales in the week totalled Bt8.38 billion.
Other bourses in Asia also tumbled today as another round of tepid data added to concerns about China's economy, which is already responsible for sparking a rout across global markets at the start of the year.
After enjoying some minor relief on Friday, the region's trading floors were once again swathed in red as panicking investors dumped equities while oil prices also headed south, sitting around 12-year lows.
"The market is concerned about China's financial stability," Matthew Sherwood, head of investment strategy at asset managers Perpetual in Sydney, told Bloomberg News.
"People are also quite nervous about the Chinese economic outlook. China is certainly slowing on a very gradual path down. A lot of people are fearing a hard landing is in play."
On Saturday official figures showed Chinese consumer prices picked up slightly in December but inflation remained about half the government's target. Prices paid at the factory gate, a guide to future inflation, also sank for a 46th consecutive month.
The figures are the latest highlighting the weakness in China, which is expected to have grown in 2015 at its slowest rate in a quarter of a century.
On Monday Shanghai slumped 2.4 per cent by lunch, while Hong Kong gave up 2.5 per cent at the break.
Sydney shed 1.4 percent, Seoul slipped 0.8 percent and Singapore was two percent off. Tokyo was closed for a public holiday.
Investors extended losses from last week, which was one of the worst starts to a year on record with dealers rattled after trade was suspended twice in four days in Chinese markets. Shanghai ended the week about 10 percent lower, in echoes of a sell-off that fuelled global turmoil in the summer.
