Better returns in foreign markets lure Thai investors

Pichet Sithi-Amnuai, BLS president, said Thai investors were interested in foreign stock markets because the global interest rate remained low, and had even contracted in some countries.

“Meanwhile, the Thai stock market’s return on investment contracted 19 per cent compared to foreign stock markets, which generated good returns, especially Nasdaq and S&P 500, which rose 40 per cent and 18 per cent respectively,” he said.

Pichet added that BLS has designed special tools to make investing in foreign markets easy, especially the “Global Signals” tool, which indicates bear and bull shares.

Rhatsarun Tanapaisankit, chief of BLS’ Global Investing department, said foreign investments in the second half of this year is an interesting option, because apart from cutting down on geographic risks, it offers people an opportunity to invest in new industries that are not available in the Thai stock market, such as shares of firms coming up with innovations.

“Many foreign markets have risen sharply, so investors should buy shares when they are cheap,” he said.

He advised that investors spend 70 per cent of their funds in the US stock market and focus on three groups, namely technology stocks such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL), growth stocks such as healthcare companies, and value stocks whose price dropped due to the Covid-19 crisis and will rise once the crisis is resolved.

“We also advise investors to spend 20 per cent in the Hong Kong stock market because many of its shares grow alongside the Chinese economy,” he said. “In addition, investors should spend the remaining 10 per cent on the Vietnam stock market and focus on investment via depositary receipt ‘E1VFVN3001’ which is an exchange traded fund of the VN30 Index.

“If investors are interested in individual stocks, we recommend Vinamilk [VNM], which is growing in line with domestic consumption in Vietnam,” he added.