1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,508.87 points, decreased 6.44 points or 0.42% with a trading value of 38 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market moved narrowly in negative territory with a selloff in the afternoon session as the market lacked positive catalysts. Meanwhile, data from Japan and China’s service sector also came out slower, raising concerns in the market.
The analyst expected the Thai stock market to continue edging lower tomorrow, while recommending investors to monitor US jobs reports and the voting for Thai PM next week.
2) Thailand’s inflation slows down to 0.23%, but central bank is likely to keep monetary tightening
Thailand’s headline consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.23% in June from the same month a year ago, the Commerce Ministry reported on Wednesday, down from the 0.53% increase seen in May.
Lower oil and food prices led to slower inflation in June. The markets had forecasted that the CPI would come in between 0.0 and 0.15%.
In June, the core CPI increased year over year by 1.32%, which was below market estimates of a 1.4% increase.
For the first half of 2023, the core CPI increased by 1.87%.
Although inflation pressures have eased in recent months and are now below the central bank’s target range of 1-3%, central bank officials have warned that it is likely to stick with monetary tightening as a tourism-led pickup in economic activity and possibly higher spending by a new government could pose risks to consumer prices.
Inflation is expected to average 0.77% in the third quarter and 0.62% in the final three months of 2023.
