The Stock Exchange of Thailand performed well in April, usually a weak month for equities because of extra holidays and lower turnover.The Thai bourse even outperformed world equity markets in the first quarter, and positive momentum locally and globally appears to be continuing into May despite the US-Iran war.
The SET index reached its highest level for April at 1,510.02 points before the Songkran holidays, buoyed by the US-Iran ceasefire announcement and a 13% plunge in oil prices.
After the long holiday, the SET mostly traded sideways, but good first-quarter results from banks as well as big-cap Delta Electronics offered support. The index ended the month at 1,493.69 points, up 3.1% from the month before, though average daily turnover fell 22.1% to 58.4 billion baht.
"Sell in May and go away" is an old market adage that is borne out by historical data to some extent, but it may not apply this year. The SET saw a big jump in early May, increasing 1.8% in one day after the government issued an emergency decree to borrow 400 billion baht to stimulate economic growth.
The funds will be divided into two portions of about 200 billion baht each. The first portion is for a new co-payment programme to stimulate economic activity. Roughly 30 million people will be eligible to receive up to 4,000 baht each, from June 1 to Sept 30, and state welfare cardholders will receive a 700-baht monthly top-up.
