Finansia: Yingluck ruling won’t affect stock market

FINANSIA Syrus Securities Plc does not think the ruling in the rice-pledging case against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra today (Sept. 27) will have any impact on the Thai stock market and sees the SET Index rising to 1,700 points by yearend, INN News said.

Kanthara Ladawan Na Ayuthaya, Finansia’s executive director for securities business, said the verdict in the rice-pledging case against Ms Yingluck would not sway the market because investors had already got the news and know about all the preparations.

This means the market’s fundamental factors will not be hit and for this reason the SET Index would be around1,650-1,700 points by yearend.

At 3.15 pm today the SET Index was at 1,669.02 points, down 0.73% from yesterday.

The SET Index will likely soar to 1,900 points next year with its lowest point not below 1,600 points because Thailand’s economic conditions have improved and the global economy has picked, Kanthara said.

However there are still some risks with the chief one being whether US Federal Reserve’s move on interest rates would be in keeping with market expectations.

According to a Reuters report published by CNBC the US dollar was underpinned today (Sept. 27) by remarks from the Federal Reserve chief on the need to continue with rate hikes, while the euro licked the wounds from political uncertainty following the German election at weekend.

The dollar’s index against a basket of six major currencies stood at 93.07, its highest level in almost a month, having risen from 93.286 the previous day.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said yesterday that the Federal Reserve needs to continue gradual rate hikes despite broad uncertainty about the path of inflation.

It would be “would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2 percent,” she said.

“Her comments suggest that latest (soft) inflation readings do not have a big bearing on the Fed’s monetary policy. The Fed’s focus is not to delay rate hikes too much to avoid a situation where it needs to raise rates hastily in the future,” said Yukio Ishizuki, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.

According to Bangkok Bank, today’s US dollar selling rate is 33.54 baht and buying rate 32.87 baht.

CAPTION:

Top: A crowd mills around outside the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders where the verdict in the rice-pledging case against former premier Yingluck is being handed down today. Photo: INN News

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