1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s stock market closed at 1,540.94 points, decreased 6.23 points or 0.40% with a trading value of 41 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market moved in a sideways direction as investors were waiting for US inflation and the budget proposal. An increase in inflation would result in the Fed maintaining rates at a higher level.
2) Thaicom signs its first-ever flexible satellite contracts with Airbus
Thaicom Public Company Limited (SET: THCOM), Thai end-to-end satellite solutions service, has made a contract with Airbus for its new generation software-defined high throughput satellite.
In this contract, Airbus will be providing one of its latest designed satellites, a fully reconfigurable OneSat.
This new satellite will provide extended connectivity in Ku-band over the Asia-Pacific region, which could serve millions of its users.
THCOM has eight geostationary satellites in the system, but this will be the first flexible satellite for the company that will allow more adaptability and capacity.
Based on the information of this contract, Airbus will design and manufacture the satellite and also includes ground control segment components. This new satellite is expected to be delivered in 2027.
3) Yen surges as BOJ’s governor considers reversing negative rates
After Kazuo Ueda, Governor of Bank of Japan (BOJ) signaled the chance of ending decades long of near zero to negative interest rate on Saturday (10 Sep), the Japanese Yen currency (JPY) jumped more than 1% Monday morning, touching the week high of USD 0.686 per JPY 100 or 146 Yen per US Dollar.
Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri reported on Saturday that the policy maker would end its negative interest rate if the inflation and wage growth reach 2% target, and BOJ could have enough data by year-end to make a decision.
4) EU Commission expects Germany to sink into recession alone in 2023
Germany will be the only major European country to plunge into a recession this year, according to the new forecasts by the European Commission.
The executive arm of the European Union expected the bloc to record a 0.4% contraction in economic activity this year, which was 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous estimate in May. The new forecast was slightly above the prediction by the International Monetary Fund in July that saw the largest economy in Europe contracting 0.3% this year.
More importantly, the commission also cut Germany’s growth expectations in 2024 to 1.1% from 1.4%.
Germany has been struggling after the bloc cut reliance on Russian energy in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.
Economists have been crowning Germany as “The Sick Man of Europe,” which indicates the country in the bloc that is experiencing economic difficulties.
Latest economic data from Germany showed that its manufacturing activity fell at the fastest pace since June 2009, excluding the Covid period.
