Thai bourse slides amid global selloff
(CNBC, CNN and INN News) – The Thai stock market joined other regional bourses in plunging today (Feb. 6) amid a global sell-off tracking massive losses posted by US stocks.
The SET Index closed down 21.89 points to reach the 1,788.43-point level with a trading value of 124,498.18 million baht.
Meanwhile at 3.23 pm today the baht-dollar buying rate was 31.05 and selling rate 31.77 at Kasikorn Bank.
The sell off in US stock markets was a continuation of Friday’s weakness as investors rushed for the exits in the wake of rising interest rates.
Monday was a harrowing day for investors in the US, where the Dow plummeted 1,175 points, or 4.6%. It was the index’s biggest ever point decline in a single day.
Tuesday looks set to be another tough trading session on Wall Street. Dow futures are down more than 275 points, or 1.2%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down 4.73 percent, or 1,071.84 points, at 21,610.24 as stocks across sectors pulled back. Still, that was off lows touched by the index earlier in the day, when it had seen losses of some 1,600 points.
Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi declined 1.54 percent to close at 2,453.31. Blue chip technology names were lower, with Samsung Electronics down 1.04 percent by the end of the day. Rival chipmaker SK Hynix closed flat.
Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 3.2 percent to finish the session at 5,833.3 on broad-based selling across sectors. The energy sub-index was among the worst-performing during the session, falling 4.49 percent as energy-related stocks declined following oil prices’ move lower. Santos fell 4.44 percent and Oil Search lost 3.26 percent.
The Hang Seng Index was down 4.39 percent by 3:31 p.m. HK/SIN as stocks sold off across sectors. Among financials, heavyweight HSBC fell 2.96 percent and China Construction Bank lost 5.99 percent ahead of the market close.
Mainland stocks, which had risen in the last session, followed the region lower on Tuesday. The Shanghai composite slid 3.38 percent to close at 3,369.71 and the Shenzhen composite lost 4.44 percent to end at 1,726.09.
Other market indexes in the region also took a beating on Tuesday: Taiwan’s Taiex lost 4.95 percent, Vietnam’s benchmark VN Index fell 4.81 percent and Malaysia’s KLCI tumbled 2.22 percent at 3:33 p.m. HK/SIN.
New Zealand markets were closed for a public holiday.
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