• Wall Street shares ended down slightly on Thu ahead of key economic data to be released out of major global economies on Fri with manufacturing PMI readings from the US, Europe and China and US nonfarm payrolls numbers in the spotlight. Looking ahead into next week, the US Federal Reserve is due to release the minutes of its latest Mar monetary policy meeting, a factor that would continue to attract investor attention for clues on the US and global economic outlook, which influences its rate hike decision.
• In a big-picture sense, it seems to us that Thai stocks may continue going nowhere far today amid a slowdown in net foreign buying of Thai equities, an emergence of foreign fund outflows from some markets in Asia i.e. South Korea and the absence of fresh positive internal catalysts after the recently approved new batch of stimulus measures and mega-investment projects. The trading range for the SET index is expected to be between 1385, 1395-1410, 1415 points today.
• For short-term strategy, we advise investors to take a selective approach to stock picking with focus on shares of companies expected to benefit from the government’s policies. Equity holdings should be capped at 60% of the portfolio with the following key investment themes to play today:
(1) Tourism recovery play: We recommend holding onto shares of AOT and MINT as the likely beneficiaries of the festive tourist season and the government’s short-term stimulus measures.
(2) Selective play: We took profits in CPALL at short-term price target of Bt46 on Thu with a gain of 4.4%.
Source: poems.in.th / settrade.com
