Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,404.84 points, increased 4.47 points or 0.32% with a trading value of 38.7 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market settled higher in the opposite direction of regional markets with the purchasing power from the electric-communication sector, responding to the shrinking bond yields. The retailers also gained benefits from the Easy e-Receipt measure. Additionally, the analyst recommended investors to monitor US PCE data later tonight.
Tisco Securities expected the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to report their official information on the topic of tourist arrivals in November 2023, expecting a total amount of 2.6 million or 77% of tourists in 2019. The estimation of tourist arrivals in December 2023 is 3 million or 76% of tourists in 2019. Both numbers indicated the breakthrough of the bottleneck, as tourist numbers had not broken the 72-75% level of 2019 since May 2023, giving positive signs to the strong outlook.
As the tourism industry is forecast to recover gradually moving forward, Tisco Securities raised The Erawan Group Public Company Limited (SET: ERW) as its top pick among the tourism sector with a target price at THB5.90 due to the majority of hotels being in Thailand and should benefit from its local expansion of Hop Inn.
Other than ERW, Tisco Securities also gave “BUY” recommendations on other hotel operators as well, namely; AWC (TP5.50), CENTEL (TP59.00) and MINT (TP38.00).
As a state-owned enterprise in the energy sector, PTT Public Company Limited (SET: PTT), is expected to shoulder a heavier burden for households in Thailand, following the decision of policymakers to change the structure of gas price and call for compensation on operation shortfall.
Despite being a state-owned enterprise, PTT is also a public company that has nearly 49% of free float and also one of the popular stocks in the Thai market. These kinds of extortion would add more risk to shareholders, especially retailers as the company could lose a huge amount of profit for who knows how long.
There are about 187,000 minor shareholders in PTT out of a total of over 192,000 shareholders. The Board of Directors will need a good explanation if they will comply with the government when there are no questions asked to those that approved this ridiculous measure.
