Thai electronic part manufacturers saw their stock prices rise on Thursday in response to the fresh record set by Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq composite.
KCE Electronics Public Company Limited (SET: KCE) rose THB2.25 or 5.39% to close the morning session at THB44.00 per share. Hana Microelectronics Public Company Limited (SET: HANA) gained THB1.75 or 3.78% to THB48.00 per share. Meanwhile, Delta Electronics (Thailand) Public Company Limited (SET: DELTA) increased THB2.00 or 2.42% to THB84.75 per share.
The S&P 500 reached record highs on Wednesday during a shortened trading session, with investors largely overlooking lackluster economic data. The broad market index climbed 0.51% to close at 5,537.02. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite surged by 0.88% to finish the session at 18,188.30, driven by the strong performance of mega-cap technology companies like Tesla and Nvidia, which saw significant gains. Both indices achieved new all-time highs during the session and closed at record levels.
On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 23.85 points or 0.06%, settling at 39,308.00. The 30-stock index was negatively impacted by a nearly 1.7% decrease in UnitedHealth’s stock price.
Meanwhile, KCE received a slight boost after new guidance from the management. CGS International Securities (Thailand) wrote in a note that the new guidance pointed to a slight improvement in sales QoQ at low to mid single digit in 2Q24F, which is relatively inline with the broker’s estimate of 5% QoQ rise.
However, gross margin is likely to improve by 1.5-2 percentage points QoQ, according to the management. This tops CGSI’s forecast for a gain of 0.9 percentage point QoQ. This is driven by ongoing cost savings, lower material costs and favourable foreign exchange rates.
CGSI added that it sees about 5% upside to its original core net profit forecast of THB513 million (+60% YoY, +22% QoQ), following the change in guidance.
