Daily Strategy for Investors on February 18, 2021

Trading sessions of stock markets in Asia were mixed on Thursday, while mainland China made a jump in the morning session on the first trading day in return from the Lunar New Year holiday.

 

As of 9:17 local time in Thailand on Thursday, Nikkei increased 0.11%, SSEC jumped 1.27%, HSI dropped 0.32%, ASX200 rose 0.08% and Kospi fell 0.52%.

Yesterday, SET Index closed at 1,514.91 points, decreased 8.20 points or 0.54% with a trading value of 96.4 billion baht.

 

Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) expected the SET to move in the range of 1,505-1,532 points in today’s session, saying that the SET index continued to fluctuate from rising inflation around the world which increased concern about faster-than-expected interest rate hikes although the release of the latest Fed meeting minutes will continue to use a relaxed monetary policy to stimulate the economy to recover.

However, AWS expected buying pressure in the energy sector in response to positive on crude oil prices to remain strong due to positive short-term support.

AWS stated that its investment strategy is continuing to weigh investment only as speculation in stocks with a positive upside in fundamentals and our recommended stocks in its Core Investment.

 

Core Investment

1) Global Play (Trading within 1 month) – PTT, PTTEP, TOP, PTTGC and SCC

2) Green energy stocks (Trading within 3-6 months) – GPSC, EGCO, GULF, BGRIM, BPP, BCPG, EA and ACE

3) Expectations for the vaccine and increased stimulus measures (Trading for 3-6 months) – BBL, KKP, BEM, CPF, TU, M, OSP, CPALL, HMPRO, CRC and CHG

4) Stocks which expected that the performance in 4Q20 will outstand (1-2 months) – SAWAD, GULF, SPALI, ORI, WHA and STA

5) Dividend Play (Middle-term trading 6-12 months) – SC, LH, QH, KKP, TISCO, RATCH, DIF, INTUCH, EASTW and TTW

6) Long term accumulative

 

In the meantime, WTI crude for March delivery closed at USD61.14 a barrel, up USD1.09 (+1.8%) partly due to the request for oil production in the U.S. that has the opportunity to drop as much as 2.0mn barrels per day because the coldest weather in 30 years affects crude oil production in many states, especially Texas which produces 4.6mn barrels of oil per day and is the state with the largest oil refineries in the U.S. which several energy companies have temporarily suspended production at a Texas refinery and limit the operation of natural gas pipelines.

The subject to watch is the weekly crude oil reserves report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) today, while Market Consensus expects that the U.S. crude reserves to drop 3.4mn barrels last week (End of 12 Feb).