SET News 45/2024
							May 9, 2024

SET market report for April 2024

BANGKOK, May 9, 2024 - Investor concerns over escalating geopolitical conflicts 
in the Middle East sent oil and gold prices soaring in April 2024 as inflation
may fall slower than expected. US Treasury yields, which have an invert
relationship with price, increased, diverging from the US stock indices. The
Federal Reserve (Fed) kept the policy rate on hold as expected at the latest
meeting as Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that the rate will remain higher for
longer. He also signaled that future interest rate hikes are unlikely. In
response to the development, investors have scaled back expectations of Fed's
rate cuts to only one or two times this year.

SET Senior Executive Vice President Soraphol Tulayasathien said that the Thai 
baht had a volatile move against the US dollar in April, with the local currency
leading declines among Asian peers. The baht movement has been determined by an
anticipation of the Fed's monetary policy direction and the pressure from
structural factors on the Thai export sector. However, the Thai economy in 2024
is set to grow at the faster clip than last year, propelled by private
consumption and tourism sector. Moreover, the government spending is expected to
be another impetus for the remaining period of this year after public spending
and investment shrunk due to a delayed budget bill for the 2024 fiscal year. The
progress has encouraged analysts to raise SET Index's forward EPS from the end
of last year while the valuation of many Thai stock sectors remains below the
historical averages.

Key highlights for April
- At the end of April 2024, SET Index was down 0.7 percent from the previous 
month to close at 1,367.95 points, falling less than the regional averages. The
benchmark dropped 2.7 percent from the end of 2023.
- For the four months to April, industry groups that outpaced SET Index were 
Services, Consumer Products, and Agro & Food Industry.
- SET's and Market for Alternative Investment (mai)'s average daily trading 
value in April 2024 rose from the preceding month to THB 44.45 billion (approx.
USD 1.20 billion) but fell 5.0 percent over the same period a year before.
Foreign investors turned to buy Thai shares with a net THB 3.79 billion in the
month as their trading ratio remained the highest among other types of investors
 for 24 consecutive months.
- In April 2024, there was a newly listed company on SET : Neo Corporation pcl 
(NEO) and five newly listed on mai : Asian Palm Oil pcl (APO), BPS Technology
pcl (BPS), QTCG pcl (QTCG) , Terabyte Plus pcl (TERA), and Stone One pcl (STX).
- The Thai stock exchange's forward P/E ratio at the end of April 2024 was 14.6 
times, above the Asian stock markets' average of 12.2 times. The historical P/E
ratio stood at 17.3 times, surpassing the Asian stock markets' average of 15.5
times.
- Dividend yield ratio at the end of April 2024 was 3.40 percent, exceeding the 
Asian stock markets' average of 3.18 percent.

Derivatives Market
- Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX)'s daily trading volume in April 2024 averaged
459,746 contracts, down 8.0 percent from the previous month largely due to the
decrease in trading volume of SET50 Index Futures and Single Stock Futures. For
the first four months of 2024. TFEX's daily trading volume dropped 21.6 percent
over the same period last year to 438,862 contracts mainly due to the decline in
 trading volume of Single Stock Futures and SET50 Index Futures.


                                        "SET...Make it Work for Everyone"
                                  Follow us on Twitter @SET_Thailand_EN
______________________________________________________________________