Worries over second wave of Covid-19, cut in bank interest rates hammer SET

In the morning session, a stock analyst at Krungsri Securities said he expected the index to fall to between 1,360 and 1,365 due to uncertainty over a second wave of Covid-19 infections as the subsequent slowdown of economy.
“Investors are worried that the US and China will issue lockdown measures to curb the contagion again after the number of new cases in the US rose to 26,000, while China has reintroduced emergency,” the analyst said.
“The stocks of banks and financial institutions will be under pressure after the Bank of Thailand told them to cut their interest rate by 2 to 4 per cent from July 1 to the end of the year in order to ease people’s suffering from the Covid-19 fallout.”
The top 10 stocks with the highest trade values today were SUPER, AOT, KBANK, SAWAD, CPF, MINT, KTC, BAM, DIF, and TASCO.
As of 4.30pm, crude oil rose by US$0.25 or 0.66 per cent to $38.21 per barrel, while gold dropped by $10.40 or 0.60 per cent to $1,746.00 per ounce.
Changes in other Asian indices were mixed:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 22,355.46, down 100.30 points, or 0.45 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 2,939.32, up 3.44 points, or 0.12 per cent, while Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 11,494.56, up 73.72 points, or 0.65 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 24,464.94, down 16.47 points, or 0.067 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,133.48, down 7.57 points, or 0.35 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 11,548.33, up 13.74 points, or 0.12 per cent.