1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,676.87 points, increased 4.24 points or 0.25% with a trading value of 82.3 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market moved in a positive territory amid ups and downs in regional markets without any positive catalyst to drive the market.
The analyst recommended investors to monitor the U.s. bond yield’s movement that recently made a new high and could have an impact on the earning yield gap. Meanwhile, tomorrow’s session is expected to be stable, giving a support level at 1,660 points and a resistance level at 1,690 points.
Categorized by investment types, local individuals and proprietary trading made a net bought of Thai shares by 1,646 million baht and 743 million baht, respectively. Meanwhile, foreign investors and local institutions net sold 1,262 million baht and 1,127 million baht respectively.
2) GULF joined Binance to develop digital asset exchange in Thailand
Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited (SET: GULF) announced on Monday that the company, through its subsidiary, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Binance Group to jointly study avenues for the development of digital asset exchange and related business in Thailand.
GULF stated that it believes that this collaboration will enhance the value of the digital asset exchange business as the company brings its expertise in setting up business in the country with an unparalleled network of local corporates from the real sector and the financial sector, while Binance brings its leading exchange technology.
3) China 2021 GDP grows 8.1%, central bank cuts interest rates
The Chinese economy grew by 8.1% in 2021, faster than forecast 8.0%, according to the official data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics as of Monday morning.
The country’s fourth quarter GDP rose by 4% for the same period a year earlier. The data broke forecasts of 3.6% by a Reuters poll.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Monday cut the borrowing costs of its medium-term loans to some financial institutions for the first time since April 2020 by 10 basis points from 2.95% to 2.85% to support any economic slowdown. The central bank also lowered the borrowing costs of seven-day repos from 2.20% to 2.10%.
4) Singapore to become first Asian nation to embrace SPACs
Two bank check companies commonly known as special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) are set to start trading in Singapore this week. This marks Singapore to be the earliest Asian nation to embrace SPACs.
“It is a good development for the capital markets in Asia that both the Hong Kong and Singapore exchanges have announced their regime for SPACs,” said Johnson Chui, co-head of APAC equity capital markets at Credit Suisse Group AG to Bloomberg.
