SET rises on signs of US economic recovery, rising crude oil price

A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities expected the index to rise between 1,385 and 1,390 on hopes of a US economic recovery after the US June non-farm payrolls rose by 4.8 million jobs and June unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 per cent.

“Besides, the market gained positive sentiment from the rising crude oil price after Opec-plus cut June crude oil exports by 1.84 million barrels per day to 17.2 barrels per day,” the analyst said.

Meanwhile, the analyst advised investors to beware of mass sell-offs due to uncertainty following the second coronavirus wave after the number of new cases in US continued to rise, and the tight SET valuation as the index’s price to earnings ratio was 19.5 times.

“The New York Stock Exchange was closed due to the US independence day,” the analyst added.

He recommended that investors buy:

 Energy stocks that benefit from the rising crude oil price, such as PTT, PTTEP, Top, PTTGC, IRPC, SPRC and IVL.

 Stocks whose second-quarter performance will improve, such as CKP, Tasco and STA.

 Stocks that benefit from the Cabinet’s domestic tourism stimulus measures, such as MINT, CENTEL, ERW, AOT and AAV.

The SET Index rose by 25 points, or 1.83 per cent, on Thursday (July 2), closing at 1,374. Total transactions amounted to Bt84 billion on hopes of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine testing and increasing US, euro-zone, and China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index in June.

Foreign investors made net sales in stocks worth Bt614 million and net buys in bonds worth Bt1.613 billion. There are 5,612 net long TFEX SET50 contracts.