BANGKOK, Feb 18 – The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) said it hopes the new government would boost the country’s investment earnings after the price-earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio) in January was lowest in the past three years.
Dr Pakorn Peetatawatchai, SET Executive Vice President, said Thailand’s stock market will have to wait and see the clarity of the new government as well as the recovery of the Thai economy itself.
He said if budget disbursements can process normally, public consumption and investments will improve and better exports will help the Thai economy to expand at a normal rate of 5-6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Dr Pakorn commented that he is certain Thailand’s commercial banks have been unaffected by the depositor run on the Government Savings Bank (GSB) due to their dissatisfaction after news of the bank’s lending to the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and they feared that their deposits would be used for the government’s rice pledging scheme.
He said Thai commercial banks are strong and have a low rate of non-performing loans (NPLs).
Regarding the P/E ratio, Kiatipong Ariyapratya, director of SET’s Thai Capital Market Research Resource, accepted that Thailand’s internal politics, the tapering US policy and the weakening currencies of emerging markets have resulted in a January P/E ratio at 11.63, the lowest in three years.
