SET Index falls almost 2% after sharp rise in recent days

A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities expected that the index would fall between 1,360 and 1,370 points before rebounding due to uncertainty amid the worrying Covid-19 situation, which is tending to become more severe in the US and other countries.
“Investors are still under pressure, which can be seen from rising gold prices and declining US bond yields,” the stock analyst said.
“However, the index will rebound from internal positive sentiment after the Cabinet signalled its readiness to consider the first set of Covid-19 relief measures worth Bt100 billion, including an adjustment of Super Savings Fund criteria, making it similar to the Long Term Equity Fund.” 
The analyst said the SET Index yesterday (March 5) rose sharply by 12.22 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 1,391 with daily transaction of Bt67 billion due to investors’ expectations that the European Central Bank and the Bank of Thailand would follow the US Federal Reserve in cutting the interest rate to tackle the Covid-19 situation.
“Foreign investors made a net sell in stocks of Bt4.302 billion and a net buy of bonds worth Bt78 million. There are 25,307 net long TFEX contracts.”
The analyst recommended four groups of stocks for investors:
● Hotel, retail, and contractor stocks, which would benefit from the Cabinet’s approval of Bt75 billion of economic stimulus measures, and public-private partnership projects such as Mint, Centel, ERW, CPAll, HMPro, BJC, STEC, and CK.
● Energy stocks, which would benefit from Opec and its partners planning to cut production capacity by 1 million barrels a day on March 5-6, such as PTT, PTTEP, TOP, and PTTGC.
● Financial stocks, which respond to reduced financial costs due to interest rate cut trends, such as MTC, Sawad, and KTC.
● Defensive stocks which pay high dividends, such as Advanc, Intuch, and TTW.