Briefs

SET Index expected to drop this week

The Thai stock market is likely to decline this week, as the index has sharply risen in the past few weeks. "This week, the stock market will likely move with volatility and have a chance to decline. Investment strategy focuses on stocks with sound fundamentals, cheap prices and chance for earnings upward revision," Kitpon Pripisankit, equity analyst and strategist for Kasikorn Securities, said. The SET Index rose 11 per cent from the start of the year, and on Friday it touched a 19-year high, as foreign investors returned to the Thai bourse. The index briefly touched 1,549.5 points, the highest level in 19 years, before dropping. - The Nation

Singapore to avoid stimulus measures

Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said there's no need for monetary stimulus in a country with full employment, adding that unorthodox tools must be used to prevent asset bubbles.

"We don't have an output gap, and evidence of that is in an extremely tight labour market," Shanmugaratnam, 56, said on Thursday. "In that context basically, you can't have an easy monetary policy, which in our case is an exchange-rate policy." - Bloomberg.