Major stock markets in Asia traded in a mixed session as investors are monitoring the situation in Ukraine closely. Meanwhile, oil prices plunged sharply after a surge to 14-year high last week.
As of 10:24 local time in Thailand on March 14, 2022, Nikkei rose 0.69%, SSEC dropped 1.46%, Hang Seng Index plunged 3.77%, ASX 200 increased 1.19% and IDX Composite gained 0.47%.
In an early trading session on Monday, Brent crude dropped 3.05% to $109.23 per barrel. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 3.09% to $105.95 a barrel.
Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) expected the SET Index this week (14 to 18 Mar) to move in a frame of 1,635-1,680 points (support 1,645-1,635 points / resistance 1,670-1,680 points). The SET last week closed at 1,658.01 points, down 13.7 points (-0.82%), average turnover of Bt114.292bn, up 15.6%WoW. AWS expected the SET to remain volatile this week from the uncertainty of the Ukrainian-Russian situation, especially before the Fed meeting (15-16 Mar).
For investment strategy, AWS recommended speculative stocks in the commodity group, both upstream group (PTEP and BANPU), refinery group which is BCP and TOP, shipping group (PSL, TTA and RCL) for investors who can take high volatility risk.
For investors with low risk tolerance, AWS recommended choosing defensive stocks that are mostly domestic play such as BH, BDMS, INTUCH, ADVANC, BEM, HMPRO, CPALL and MAKRO.
