Krungsri Securities (KSS) expected Thailand’s SET Index to move within the range of 1,370-1,390 points. The analyst noted that despite a push from rising US stocks and capital from Thai saving funds such as TSEG, SSF and RMF at the end of the year, foreign fund flows continued to leave the Thai market. The upcoming long weekend would make the market fluctuate as well.
The Japanese yen continued to strengthen early Friday by nearly 1% against the US dollar as expectations are growing in the foreign exchange market for BOJ to finally give a signal that it will soon relax the ultra-low interest rates policy at the meeting scheduled next week.
Kazuo Ueda, BOJ Governor, noted that once the central bank pulls short-term borrowing costs out of negative territory, it will give several options on the monetary policy.
Japan’s 3Q23 GDP was revised downward to a 0.7% fall quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), and 2.9% contraction year-on-year (YoY0, which saw a sharper fall compared with the preliminary 0.5% decline QoQ and 2.1% fall YoY as consumer and business spending both shrank. Meanwhile, real wages and household spending kept falling in October amid persistent inflation.
