Despite global economic turbulence, Thailand’s stock market remains strong and volatile. Despite increasing inflation and currency rate instability, about 150 billion baht has flooded into the Thai stock market. People claim exports and tourism are doing nicely.
Soraphol Tulyasathien, senior executive vice president of SET, said that the continuous depreciation of ASEAN area currencies was due to the dollar’s rise. As with other currencies, the Thai baht has its advantages and disadvantages. However, this has not deterred investors from purchasing Thai equities. In the first nine months of this year, foreign investors net bought a total of 146 billion baht. Foreign investors accounted for the largest share of total transaction value for the sixth month in a row. Mr. Soraphol further said that the stock market saw gains as a result of positive momentum in sectors that benefitted from the reopening push.
The SET index dropped by 3 percent from its preceding month’s closing value of 1589.51 to close the month. The decrease mirrored those of other ASEAN stock markets.
Mr. Soraphol has predicted that stock markets throughout the world, including Thailand’s, would be extremely turbulent for the rest of this year. This is due to changes in economic and fiscal policy made by major economies to account for the dangers posed by global economic trends. Policies that increase interest rates to curb inflation are particularly vital.
Mr. Soraphol predicted that the growth of Thailand’s exports and tourism industries will keep the country’s economy on a slow but steady path to recovery. The latter is expected to have more than 10 million international visitors this year. Nonetheless, Mr. Soraphol advised cautious short-term investment planning and constant news monitoring. This is because there is always a chance that new risks will emerge for the rest of this year, and consequently affect the money and capital markets.
