1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,522.96 points, decreased 4.61 points or 0.30% with a trading value of 43 billion baht. The analyst stated that the market fluctuated as investors sold equities to lower the risk before the Fed’s meeting as inflation in the U.S. remained high, which could prompt the central bank to raise rates. Meanwhile, weaker Thai baht resulted in foreign outflows. Still, the energy sector did help buoy the market to not plunge further.
2) Citi introduces token services to institutional clients
American giant bank, Citigroup (NYSE: C) has introduced Citi Token Services, a cross-border payments, liquidity and automated trade solution to its institutional clients, using Citi’s own global private, permissioned blockchain network and its capabilities included tokenized deposit and smart contract.
Citi’s digital asset arm, Citi Treasury and Trade Solution (TTS) licensed in over 90 countries, has completed two pilot services. One with Maersk, the Danish giant shipper on the payment program that uses smart contracts to reduce transaction time by replacing letters of credit and bank guarantees. Another pilot is the 24/7 intra-network transferring between its branches or its hosted blockchain nodes around the world.
3) Thailand records 19 million of foreign arrivals with nearly THB 800 billion of revenue
Thailand has recorded 19 million foreign arrivals so far this year, according to the statement from the Thai tourism ministry on Tuesday.
Based on data gathered from January to September 17, 2023, the arrival of 19 million passengers have generated 795 billion baht in revenue.
The minister said that the tourism situation in Thailand is showing signs of improvement and hoped that the new measure of temporary free visa for Chinese arrivals will give another boost to the outlook and revenue. Meanwhile, the peak season for Thai tourism will begin this week with long weekends in source countries like Malaysia and Japan as well as China in early October.
The government expected to welcome 28 million foreign arrivals this year, which is still below the record level of 39.9 million in 2019 that were largely boosted by Chinese tourists.
