Major stock markets in Asia traded in a mixed session on Monday as investors continued to monitor the situation in Ukraine after Kyiv refused to surrender Mariupol for Moscow, while oil prices recovered from a two-week loss.
As of 10:26 local time in Thailand on March 21, 2022, SSEC rose 0.05%, Hang Seng Index gained 0.35%, ASX200 dipped 0.07% and IDX Composite slipped 0.07%.
Thailand’s SET Index opened at 1,684.99 points, increased 6.48 points or 0.39%.
Oil prices surged more than 2% on Monday after posting two-straight weeks of losses as investors made some profit taking from the 8-year high of oil prices and also relaxing from the situation in Ukraine when both parties constantly meet for peace negotiations.
In the morning session on Monday, Brent crude rose 2.66% to $110.80 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increased 2.78% to $107.62 a barrel.
Meanwhile, Ukraine reaffirmed its decision to not surrender Mariupol after Russia put more pressure on Kyiv, giving it a deadline until the early hours of March 21 to give its answer on surrendering the city. 10 million Ukrainians have reportedly fled their home since the launch of Russian attack.
Mr. Ekpawin Suntarapichard, investment strategist of the Siam Commercial Bank Securities (SCBS), through “Kaohoon Jor Talad Program” on March 21, 2022, stated that the overall outlook for this week must be monitored, especially on the Russia-Ukraine, oil prices and weaken Thai baht that could cause an outflow, in which the 1,700 resistance level is solid due to the current situation in the market.
The strategist stated that rising inflation rate will have an impact on corporates first quarter performance this year, especially those with fuel and gas costs, such as power plants, F&B, transportations, construction material and contractors, which limited the upside of SET Index.
As for short speculating-buy, Mr. Suntarapichard recommended ERW and CENTEL for hotel stocks, BDMS and CPALL for least impact from inflation.
