Major stock markets in Asia traded in a mixed session on Friday despite a negative session in Wall Street last night, dragged by a selloff in tech stocks, led by a 26% plummet in Facebook from earnings disappointment.
Thailand’s SET Index opened at 1,674.47 points, increased 5.42 points or 0.32%.
As of 10:13 local time in Thailand, Nikkei dipped 0.03%, Hang Seng Index jumped 2.42%, ASX 200 slipped 0.20%, IDX Composite rose 0.43%. Meanwhile, stock markets in China remained close for Lunar New Year holidays.
Wall Street plunged last night, dragged by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite in a disappointment of Facebook’s 4Q21 results that missed expectations, sending the share price of Meta to fall more than 26% last night.
Dow Jones closed 1.45% lower at 35,111.16 points. S&P 500 fell 2.44% and Nasdaq plunged 3.74%.
Mr. Kantara Ladawan na Ayutthaya, executive director of Finansia Syrus Securities (FSS), through “Kaohoon Jor Talad Program” on February 4, 2022, expected SET Index to edge higher, following a surge in oil prices. However, Mr. Ladawan stated that concerns on the Fed’s rate hike still remain and suggested that investors should take profit if the index rises to a certain level as the market should be volatile before surpassing the 1,700 level.
Mr. Ladawan pointed out that the speculative buy in the finance sector is due to the rate hike trend after the sector has been one of the key supporters during the pandemic. The analyst recommended picking stocks that are still performing lower than its fundamentals, and Muangthai Capital Public Company Limited (SET: MTC) is among those stocks.
