Major stock markets in Asia traded mostly lower in the morning session on Wednesday as investors digested information from the Fed’s minutes over multiple rate hikes this year.
As of 10:32 local time in Thailand on May 26, 2022, Nikkei rose 0.03%, SSEC fell 0.18%, Hang Seng dropped 1.16%, ASX 200 slipped 0.46% and IDX Composite dipped 0.44%.
Thailand’s SET Index opened at 1,630.89 points, increased 5.71 points or 0.35%.
The Federal Reserve minutes released Wednesday indicated that the central bank is prepared to move on with multiple 50bps interest rate hikes to bring down inflation.
“Most participants judged that 50 basis point increases in the target range would likely be appropriate at the next couple of meetings,” stated the minutes.
Also, the minutes noted that policy may have to move past a “neutral” stance in which it is neither supportive nor restrictive of growth.
Mr. Koraphat Vorachet, Capital Nomura Securities’ strategist, through “Kaohoon Jor Talad Program” on May 26, 2022, stated that there was no surprise from the Fed’s minutes on the 50bps rate hikes, and recommended investors to continue monitoring the U.S. economic data. He expected the U.S. central bank to raise the rate by 50bps in each meeting in June and July (possibly another hike in August), but could go higher if the inflation rate surged.
As for the Thai stock market, Mr. Vorachet expected to continue fluctuating into the first two week of June and advised investors to carefully trade during this period. He noted that the positive sentiment from reopening led to the Thai stock market to outperform the others this year, but still seeing economic recovery in 2Q not at a faster pace. However, this will make the outlook at the year end much stronger.
