Asian Stocks Trade Higher as Wall Street and Oil Prices Extend Gains
Major stock markets in Asia traded higher on Wednesday, following the winning streak in Wall Street and the rise in oil price in the previous session.
As of 8:35 local time in Thailand on December 8, 2021, Nikkei rose 1.10%, Hang Seng Index gained 0.44%, ASX 200 increased 0.74% and IDX Composite advanced 0.85% while SSEC was flat.
Dow Jones closed 1.40% higher at 35,719.43 points. S&P 500 rose 2.07% and Nasdaq jumped 3.03%.
Brent crude closed $2.36 or 3.2% higher at $75.44 a barrel, following a 4.6% gain on Monday. Meanwhile, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.56 or 3.7% to settle at $72.05 per barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels for the week ended November 30, 2021, which was more than a draw of about 2.1 million barrels, expected by economists.
Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) expected the SET today to move in a range of 1,595-1,620 points as the market continues to have a short-term positive sentiment from China’s economic stimulus measures, including the positive comments of Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Physician of the White House disclosed preliminary reports that the Omicron virus makes the infected person mildly sick and there have been no reports suggesting the risk of death. AWS were optimistic about investing in risky assets.
In addition, AWS assessed the reaction function of the government sector that has not implemented a lockdown policy. We believe that the overall economy will not be affected by the consumption sector, but will increase the risk factor of inflation because the current situation may lead to impacts on production, transportation and exports, which will accelerate inflation and adding weight to the Fed’s urge to end its quantitative easing (QE) bond-buying program and raise interest rates more than once in 2022.
AWS weighed only 50% of the portfolio, and also recommended stocks that benefit from the open-city measures. (Cancel the lockdown measures) according to the Core Investment theme of domestic purchasing power is recovering.
While short-term stocks, AWS recommended speculation on shares in tourism related groups (business related to aviation and hotel business), energy group and banking. AWS chose PTTEP, SPRC, PTT, ERW, AOT, AAV, BAFS, KBANK and TTB, as well as stocks that benefited from the weak baht. AWS chose ASIAN, TU, HANA, KCE, PACO, AH, IHL, SAT, MEGA, EPG, APURE and SONIC.
- Stocks which obtained benefit from Thai Baht depreciation (Trading within 1 month)- ASIAN, TU, HANA, KCE, PACO, AH, IHL, SAT, MEGA, EPG, APURE,
SONIC, WICE, III and NYT.
- Recovery of purchasing power in the country (Trading within 1-2 months) – BJC, OSP, CBG, CHG, BCH, BEM, MAKRO, CRC and HMPRO.
- Earnings Play 4Q21 (Trading within 1-2 months) – SC, ADVANC, OSP, HANA, KCE, FSMART, PACO, FORTH and APURE.
- Dividend Play (Trading more than 6 months) – KKP, TCAP, TASCO, PSH, TISCO, SPCG, SC, WHAUP, CTW, ORI, RATCH, TVO, TTW and SPALI.
- Long term accumulative stocks (DCA) (Long-term trading over 1 year) – AOT, BEM, ADVANC, WHA, LH, BDMS, HMPRO, KBANK and KKP.