The baht opened at 33.50 to the US dollar on Thursday, unchanged from Wednesday’s closing rate.
The Thai currency is likely to move between 33.45 and 33.55 to the greenback during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool predicted.
Poon said that the baht is likely to swing sideways while the Omicron situation might pressure the baht to weaken.
However, foreign investors did not worry about the Omicron situation and continued to invest in Thai stocks this week.
Moreover, Poon said that the baht might strengthen because investors are selling gold while the dollar is weakening. He speculated the baht will be at between 33.40 to 33.50 to the dollar at the end of the year.
In 2022, Poon said the baht is likely to swing sideways at the beginning of the year due to the Omicron situation.
He said the baht is likely to strengthen in the second half of 2022 if the tourism sector greatly recovers while foreign investors invest in Thai assets.
Poon added the baht could reach the level between 31.75 to 32.00 to the dollar.
Krungsri Securities forecast the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index on Thursday (December 30) would fluctuate between 1,645-1,660 points.
It said the index still gained positive sentiment from relief in Omicron concerns, rising oil prices in response to the decline in US oil storage and hopes over Thailand economic recovery next year.
However, it predicted that mass sell-offs of shares to reduce risks during the New Year holidays would pressure the index.
It also recommended buying of the following companies’ shares as an investment strategy:
HMPRO, CPN, CRC, VGI, SYNEX, COM7 and JMART, which are domestic play stocks.
RCL, LEO, III, WICE, SONIC and JWD, which benefit from rising freight rate.
EA, GPSC, AMATA, WHA, AH and SAT, which benefit from the government’s support on electric vehicles.
PTTEP, TOP, PTTGC, IVL and SPRC, which benefit from rising oil price and gross refining margin.
BBL, TTB, KTB and KBANK, which benefit from news of interest rate hike.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,653.33 on Wednesday, up 11.81 points or 0.72 per cent. Transactions totalled 72.56 billion baht with an index high of 1,654.98 and a low of 1,641.75.
The index gained for the second consecutive day after rising by 5.02 points or 0.31 per cent on Tuesday.
The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were DELTA, KBANK, SCB, EA, AOT, CPF, MAKRO, PTT, GPSC and NV.
Other Asian indices were down with one exception:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 28,906.88, down 162.28 points or 0.56 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite closed at 3,597.00, down 33.11 points or 0.91 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component closed at 14,653.82, down 184.05 points or 1.24 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 23,086.54, down 194.02 points or 0.83 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,993.29, down 26.95 points or 0.89 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 18,248.28, up 51.47 points or 0.28 per cent.
The Department of Corrections confirmed on Wednesday that Italian-Thai Development CEO Premchai Kanasutra has not received any privileges to leave Kanchanaburi’s Thong Pha Phum prison for medical treatment.
Deputy director-general Thawatchai Chaiwat held a press conference as Premchai’s wife handed in a request letter to the Justice Ministry earlier on Wednesday to transfer the CEO prisoner to hospital due to his chronic diseases, especially severe diabetes.
Thawatchai said prison doctors conducted a daily health check-up and found Premchai to be healthy and without the need to transfer him to hospital for further medical treatment.
The deputy director-general also said Premchai, who was given a sentence of “two years and 14 months” in prison without parole for poaching and hunting in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in February 2018, has completed 21 days in a Covid-19 screening zone for new prisoners.
He added that Premchai would have to be isolated in Thong Pha Phum prison for another 21 days.
It may be too soon to be excited by findings by South African scientists that patients who had been vaccinated against Covid-19 and then contracted Omicron had developed significantly stronger immunity against the Delta variant, said Dr Anan Jongkaewwatana from the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Anan said the South African study titled “Omicron infection enhances neutralising immunity against the Delta variant”, which has not been peer-reviewed, could be inconclusive due to too small a number of examples – only 13.
“I have reviewed another study by Hong Kong scientists among only two candidates who contracted Omicron after they had been vaccinated with two doses of mRNA vaccines,” he said. “The result showed that the first candidate had improved neutralising immunity against Delta 9.58 times higher than unvaccinated persons. However, in the second candidate, the Delta immunity went up only 1.42 times,” Anan said.
“This indicates that after contracting Omicron, a patient’s immunity against Delta is still not significantly higher than that of unvaccinated people,” he pointed out.
“The South African study is indeed interesting, but we still need more extensive studies before we can conclude that contracting Omicron could serve as nature’s immunity boost against other variants,” Anan added.
Thailand should quicken the pace of administering the third dose of Covid-19 vaccines to keep the Omicron situation from getting worse as in the UK, Federation of Thai Industries vice-chairman Kriengkrai Thiennukul recommended.
According to Kriengkrai, the UK is administering the third dose to their citizens “slowly”.
He said the UK’s population is nearly the same as Thailand’s but they have administered only 20 million third doses.
Kriengkrai said Thailand has already given 5 million of its population booster doses but urged the government to administer 45 million more booster doses quickly to prevent Omicron from spreading widely.
He expected the third-dose goal to be reached in three months.
Without mentioning the Omicron situation, the World Bank speculated that Thailand’s GDP would grow by 3.9-4 per cent in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking expected the GDP to grow by 3-4.5 per cent.
Foreign countries may have to enforce lockdown measures again, while exports could be affected as cargo ships, ports and personnel cut down on work.
Therefore, Thailand’s services industry and tourism sector might be affected more than before.
National Shippers’ Council chairman Chaichan Chareonsuk felt the government must clearly inform its people of the Omicron situation. To avoid confusion, the public should not have to search for information themselves, he said.
Chaichan said citizens should question whether the government has enough funds to compensate businesses or stimulate the economy if the Omicron situation gets worse.
He added that the manufacturing sector to do with exports is faring well. It grew by 16.4 per cent in the first 11 months of 2021. However, it earned less profit year-on-year because oil prices have increased.
Chaichan said the challenge for the next year is to control the cost of production and product prices, which can lead to inflation and affect wages.
Meanwhile, Thai Chamber of Commerce chairman Sanan Angubolkul said the government’s accomplishment in 2021 is administering 100 million doses of vaccines along with its plan to administer more booster doses to the public.
The government is also promoting and pushing exports, which are expected to grow by 15 per cent this year.
Moreover, he said, the government launched a host of successful economic stimulus schemes, such as “Kon La Khreung” (Let’s Go Halves) and “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together).
However, there were also unsuccessful schemes such as “Ying Chai, Ying Dai” (Spend More, Get More), the asset warehousing programme and a soft loan scheme.
The Department of International Economic Affairs published a statement on Thursday saying that the opening of the China-Laos Railway on December 2, marked a key milestone for the business and commercial exchange between Asean and China.
“The project has helped strengthen Thailand’s economic presence through trade, tourism, business diversification and access to the western region of Asia’s largest economy and the Belt-and-Road networks across Eurasia, propel economic development in the mainland Southeast Asia and transform Laos from ‘land-locked to land-linked’ connectivity hub of the region,” the statement read.
The department said the project was aimed to establish logistics hubs, industrial parks and economic corridors linking the projects with other high-potential regions, such as Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and Southern Economic Corridor (SEC) while facilitating the improvement of cross-border financial transactions and e-commerce.
The statement urged economic diplomacy to help steer policy discourse towards the long-term impacts of the project. The department said that Thai export entrepreneurs should be provided with supports and promotions from the government in a bid to revive the economy and strengthen the country.
“At the regional level, with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) coming into force in January 2022, the economic interactions between China and Asean are expected to intensify. Thailand will be able to improve its economic presence in the region, only if it plays a significant role in supporting growth and integration and strengthening macroeconomic stability in the region. This, in turn, can be realised through proactively engaging all partners in creating resilient value chains, adopting international standards and promoting economic compatibility within the region and beyond,” read the statement.
The Pollution Control Department’s Centre for Air Pollution Mitigation said on Wednesday that it expected the air quality in all regions of Thailand to be at a “good” level on average during the New Year holidays, based on its 7-day air quality forecast from December 30 to January 5.
“The daily air quality report of December 29 found that PM2.5 [dust particles measuring 2.5 microns in diameter] readings in different regions of the country are all within the safety standard, or not exceeding 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air [μg/m3],” said department director-general Atthaphol Charoenchansa.
The readings are:
• Greater Bangkok: 10 to 32μg/m3
• North: 9 to 31μg/m3
• Northeast: 5 to 22μg/m3
• Central region and West: 10 to 29μg/m3
• East: 9 to 16μg/m3
• South: 8 to 20μg/m3
As for the next seven days, the department estimated that air quality would be in the “excellent to good level” in most areas.
However, in some areas of big cities such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai, the air quality on January 4 and 5 could be in the moderate to poor level due to an increase in the number of vehicles heading back from other provinces.
“There have been reports circulating on social media that the air quality during New Year holidays will worsen, with an exceeding amount of PM2.5,” said Atthaphol. “We have checked these reports and found that they had collected samples from limited areas during brief periods, which could result in an inaccurate air quality assessment.”
Atthaphol added that the department has been using standard air sensors made by the National Research Council of Thailand to ensure accurate readings and credible forecasts.
People can monitor air quality via the websites Air4Thai.com and bangkokairquality.com or the Air4Thai and AirBKK applications.
Although the government insisted that only some state-organised New Year countdown events had been cancelled over the Omicron situation while private events were allowed to go ahead, a number of organisers have followed in the government’s footsteps and scrapped their scheduled year-end events, a news source said on Wednesday.
So far, the government-sponsored events that have been cancelled are Bangkok’s Buddhist chanting and New Year merit-making ceremonies, as well as countdown events in Khon Kaen and Hat Yai (Songkhla).
Here is a list of notable countdowns that will still light up the atmosphere to usher in the New Year:
Bangkok
> Amazing Thailand Countdown 2022 at IconSiam shopping complex in Khlong San district.
> Siam Paragon Countdown 2022 at Siam Paragon mall in Pathumwan district
> Asiatique Thailand Countdown 2022 at Asiatique: The Riverfront in Bang Kho Laem district
> The “Lan Nom Sam Yan” event at Samyan Mitrtown in Pathumwan district
Chonburi
> Pattaya Festival 2021 at Bali Hai Pier in Bang Lamung district
Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima, Rayong, Ayutthaya and the Phuket
Tourism Authority of Thailand will hold countdown events under the concept “Visit Thailand Year 2022 Amazing New Chapter” at five locations: Royal Park Rajapruek in Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima City Hall, Moonlight Beach in Rayong, Ayutthaya’s Wat Phra Ram and Saphan Hin Beach in Phuket. Only 1,500 participants are limited at each of these events.
Meanwhile, Bangkok’s CentralWorld mall will hold its countdown via Facebook Live, while its physical location on Rama I Road in Pathumwan district will open until 11pm on December 31 with only an exhibition of a decorated giant Christmas tree.
The Public Health Ministry has instructed the private sector that all events must strictly follow disease control measures, which include using online pre-registration to prevent crowding, mandating ATK testing at the event entrance, and maintaining social distancing in event areas, while all participants and staffers must be fully vaccinated.
Thailand has detected 740 cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant to date, comprising 489 overseas arrivals and 251 local infections, the Public Health Ministry reported on Wednesday.
Although the majority of new Covid-19 cases are still those of the Delta variant, Omicron cases have started increasingly popping up, said Medical Sciences Department director-general Dr Suphakit Sirilak.
“Omicron infections have already been found in at least 33 provinces, of which 19 are known to have cases from local infections,” he said. “Many of those locally infected patients are linked to transmission from the Kalasin cluster.”
Suphakit said Bangkok, Kalasin and Phuket accounted for more than 60 per cent of the country’s Omicron cases, while local infections are mostly linked to overseas visitors.
The first Omicron case in Thailand was detected in a US national on November 30, exactly one month after the country reopened selected provinces on November 1 under the Test & Go scheme, in which foreign visitors were allowed to enter the country without having to quarantine, provided they tested negative via the RT-PCR method on arrival.
The fast spreading Omicron variant prompted the government to suspend the scheme on December 22 and mandate a second RT-PCR test for foreign visitors on the 5th or 6th day of their stay in Thailand.
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