SET gains as many countries allow some businesses to resume

A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities expected the index to fluctuate between 1,265 and 1,290.
He said the market gained support from many countries, such as the US, in Europe and Thailand allowing some businesses to resume operations after the number of Covid-19 cases started decreasing.
“On Tuesday [April 28], the number of new Covid-19 cases in Thailand was only seven, while investors expected the Federal Open Market Committee [FOMC] to maintain the interest rate at 0-0.25 per cent,” the analyst said.
“However, investors were selling stocks due to uncertainty following the decline in listed companies’ first quarter performance and the high price-to-earnings ratio at 15 times, which would cause stock market volatility.”
He said the SET Index on Tuesday closed at 1,275, up 7.58 points, or 0.60 per cent, with transactions amounting to Bt60 billion.
“Foreign investors made net buys of Bt185 million in stocks and made net sales of Bt1.801 billion in the bond market. There were 1,826 net long TFEX SET50 contracts,” the analyst said.
He suggested that investors make selective buys from these four groups of stocks:
● Retail stocks that would benefit from the expected easing of lockdown measures, such as CRC, CPN, HMPro, Global, Com7 and CPAll.
● ICT and food stocks that have escaped the severe impact of the outbreak, such as ADVANC, INTUCH, DTAC and CPF.
● Financial stocks that would benefit from the Accounting Profession Supervision Committee easing Thai Financial Reporting Standards 9 and low-interest soft loans, such as KTC, SAWAD, MTC, JMT and BAM.
● Stocks whose first quarter performance is expected to improve, such as CPF, IVL, BCPG, GPSC and RS.