Major stock markets in Asia were fluctuating on Thursday, following a setback in Wall Street last night over concerns of the Covid-19 omicron variant as Washington confirmed the first case in the country.
Thailand’s SET Index opened at 1,583.17 points, decreased 7.64 points or 0.48%.
As of 10:24 local time in Thailand on December 2, 2021, Nikkei slipped 0.66%, SSEC dipped 0.09%, Hang Seng Index rose 0.42%, ASX 200 increased 0.03% and IDX Composite gained 0.45%.
Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) expected the SET today to move in a range of 1,550-1,590 points after the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, Omicron strain. AWS pointed out that the SET (26-30 Nov) dropped 79.77 points. (-4.8%), and the securities company viewed the SET volatility in the short-term, while in the long-term, the SET showed signs of falling an uptrend, making investments to be more cautious.
The risk factors affecting the investment overview come from (1) the epidemic of the Omicron strain of COVID-19. (2) there is a possibility that the effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron is reduced, while the development of new vaccines will still take several months which will affect the overall economy and the commodity market; and (3) the U.S. monetary policy adjustment is more stringent starting with the acceleration of QE reduction faster than planned from the recovery of the overall economy while inflation continued to increase at an accelerated rate. The Fed is expected to signal a faster-than-expected rate hike in the near term.
For investment strategy, AWS weighed only 50% of the portfolio, and also recommended stocks which benefit from the open-town measures. (Repeal of lockdown measures), including restaurant business in department stores, department store group, gas station group, retail group, hospital group, urban transport group, Out-of-home media group, according to Core Investment in the theme of domestic purchasing power is recovering according to the Bank of Thailand’s positive outlook on the overall economy.
