Thai stocks continue to fly high as US, Japan data lift sentiment

Favourable economic data from the United States, Japan and China is buoying global stock investor sentiment.

While the Thai bourse hit another 19-year high yesterday, Tokyo's stock index reached the highest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

At the open, London extended the five-year high. New York on Thursday ended at an all-time high for the third straight session.

New claims for US unemployment benefits fell to 340,000, suggesting modest strength in the jobs market in the week before the "sequester" of $85 billion in deep federal budget cuts kicked in on March 1.

In China, exports rose 21.8 per cent in February from a year earlier, against an 8.1-per-cent growth consensus. Japan also posted a 0.2-per-cent expansion in the fourth quarter of last year, suggesting the end of recession.

Riding on the buoyant sentiment, the Stock Exchange of Thailand Index gained 5.94 points or 0.38 per cent to 1,566.92 points on brisk turnover of Bt72 billion.

In the past five days, daily turnover increased from Bt52.6 billion on Monday to Bt72 billion yesterday.

Foreign investors have returned as net-buyers, with net-buy position of more than Bt6 billion to date in March.

Trinity Securities revised upward its SET Index target to 1,800 points, from 1,650, on expectation of more foreign capital inflows. Yet, it warned investors of possible profit taking between the end of this month through April, as the dividend yield gap between Bangkok and New York bourses narrows to 0.5 per cent, the lowest in 10 years.

Bualuang Securities' SET target is 1,640 points as the market should benefit from the Bt2-trillion infrastructure investment as well as continued quantitative easing from both US and Japan.