The share price of packaging and food supply companies skyrocketed by more than 100 per cent because these businesses were left unscathed by the Covid-19 impact.
The shares of Polyplex (Thailand) (PTL), AJ Plast (AJ), Starflex (SFLEX) and R&B Food Supply (RBF) rose by 132 per cent, 170 per cent, 166 per cent, and 283 per cent, respectively.
PTL managing director Amit Prakash said now that the company has started producing polyester plastic beads, it expects sales in Indonesia to rise by up to 16 per cent during the April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 period. He added that the production of polyester beads is currently 90 per cent, which should shift to 100 per cent soon.
“PTL has benefited from the pandemic because demand for flexible packaging has risen,” he said.
Meanwhile, SFLEX executives expect the company’s revenue and profits to rise this year, adding that the firm will soon start producing rice bags and sachet to expand its customer base.
“The company’s aims to boost this year’s revenue by 15 to 20 per cent year on year, while it is targeting a 21 to 23 per cent rise in gross profit,” the executives said. “Meanwhile, we aim to raise funds by launching initial public offerings to build a new factory so production can be expanded by another 30 per cent.”
A stock analyst at DBS Vickers Securities said RBF’s revenue in the next two years is expected to increase by approximately 30 per cent per year as the company’s sales continues to rise, and the company has also successfully managed to control costs.
“Projects that will help boost the company’s growth are new breadcrumb factories in Vietnam and Indonesia, the procurement of new machines to boost efficiency and a new factory in Indonesia’s Surabaya.”
Jul 08. 2020Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chair of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations (Fetco).
By The Nation
Even though the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index experienced large negative returns of minus 13 per cent, bank shares have suffered a sharp 34 per cent downfall from early this year.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chair of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations (Fetco), said that though investors are regaining their confidence, they are still neutral where SET Index is concerned.
If broken down, retail investors remain negative, while brokerage accounts and institutional investors have shifted to neutral from negativity about the market. Only foreign investors are positive.
“It is interesting to see that different investors now have contradictory views compared to the past few months, when almost everyone believed the market would rebound. Since the market has rebounded to a range of 1,300 to 1,400 points, we have witnessed some share selling. However, I personally don’t think the index will rise any higher, unless we have a clearer picture of the economic situation,” Paiboon said.
Most investors are not interested in bank shares even though the price has gone down by 40 per cent, he said, adding that they are more interested in shares in the food and beverage category.
Jeff Suteesopon, mutual fund manager at Bualuang Fund, said the Covid-19 fallout is expected to drive up banks’ non-performing loans (NPLs), while the interest rate is on a decline. These factors are putting banks’ profits under pressure, though they are doing better in terms of lending. Loan growth is expected to be 4 per cent this year, compared to just 2 per cent last year, because businesses require more liquidity.
The central bank’s debt moratorium for businesses has eased the possibility of bad debts, otherwise the banking sector would have been hit hard by bad debts in the second quarter.
Debt repayment has been suspended for a combined Bt6.8 trillion or 37 per cent of total loans. Under the assumption that 40 per cent of loans have to be restructured, then NPLs could rise to 4.5 per cent this year and 5 per cent next year, he said.
On the positive side, however, banks may not need to boost their capital as they have large reserves against risk assets now.
Though no cash is flowing into banks during the debt moratorium period, it is doing so in accounting practice. So, if debtors are unable to pay their debts after the moratorium, then banks will have to write off this supposed revenue.
Bank profits are expected to drop by 45 per cent, or from a combined Bt200 billion in profits last year to Bt120 billion this year. This is largely because banks need to set aside large reserves worth about Bt250 billion, up from Bt160 billion last year.
Return on equity (ROE) is also expected to drop to 5 per cent from 10 per cent.
On the positive side, since bank shares have fallen sharply, the risk of a further downturn is low. Though bank shares may not be attractive in the short term, they are fine for two- to three-year investment, he said.
Worawat Saisuphatphol, an analyst at UBS Securities (Thailand), said bank profits in the second half of this year will be lower than the first half as banks have to boost their already large reserves.
According to UBS studies conducted over the past 10 to 15 years, banks’ shares generally rise during three or four quarters before bad debts peak. This means share prices rise before profits can increase, he added.
By The Washington Post · Steven Zeitchik · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, WORLD, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, RACE, FOOTBALL DISNEY-ANALYSIS
Disney is boldly choosing a side in the culture wars. Or is it?
On Monday, Disney announced that it had made a first-look deal – a mutual commitment to develop content – with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Among the potential projects are shows with Hulu, movies with Pixar and an ESPN docuseries about the activist-athlete’s roller coaster recent years.
The announcement comes at a moment when politics, sports and entertainment are entwining in new ways, now converging at the country’s largest entertainment company. And on its face, it represents a shocking turnaround. Kaepernick’s protests, which began with kneeling during the national anthem and also included wearing socks that depicted police as pigs, created a legion of followers, a large number of detractors and a culture war that went all the way to the White House. He has been cheered, shunned and become, no matter one’s politics, a lightning rod. And Disney has long been careful in the extreme to avoid lightning rods.
As a company with a record $70 billion in 2019 revenue, the firm relies on selling the greatest amount of goods to the greatest number of people. Most of its big-screen heroes, from Tony Stark to Moana, peddle general values of innovation and determination, avoiding both an overt nationalism and a spirit of protest. Disney has long avoided political commentary on the small screen too, largely eschewing the Stephen Colbert and “Saturday Night Live” ethos’ of rivals CBS and NBC.
Yet here it stands, embracing Kaepernick across its brands.
The announcement even arrived with official Walt Disney Co. bells and whistles; the news release came with comments not just from executives at The Undefeated, the socially minded ESPN-owned website that will help oversee the partnership, but hosannas from Robert Iger, Disney’s executive chairman. “Colin’s experience gives him a unique perspective on the intersection of sports, culture and race,” he noted.
As if to underline the shift, Disney also announced that former ESPN personality Jemele Hill, who left first “SportsCenter” and then the network over clashes with management regarding her political outspokenness, would help produce the Kaepernick docuseries. It was a homecoming for a prodigal daughter to go along with the minting of a new favorite son. (A homecoming of sorts – Hill was brought in by Kaepernick, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who was not authorized to talk about them publicly, not by ESPN.)
The apparent meaning of the effort did not go unnoticed by experts. As the longtime media journalist Anthony Crupi pointed out, the deal marked “a reversal of the play nice with 345 Park Ave/Stick to Sports initiatives” that Disney and ESPN had long practiced, referring to the NFL’s New York headquarters.
The announcement also seemed to satisfy what the University of Virginia’s Carmenita Higginbotham, who teaches and studies Disney, told The Washington Post just last week was required of the company.
“What Disney has to do is figure out how to make itself matter, how to get in front of audiences in very different ways than it has in the past,” she said. “Because the previous rules . . . of just riding safely down the middle of American society” no longer work.
But the Kaepernick deal may also be less subversive than it appears. Kaepernick and his approach – which deployed a visually potent image to call attention to systemic racism and police misconduct – were in fact endorsed by Disney only after many entities had already pivoted to embrace the athlete during the past six weeks of Black Lives Matter protests. As a larger political movement has gone from marginal to mainstream – and, not insignificantly, as President Trump’s poll numbers suggest his waning ability to win this particular culture war or use it to his political advantage – it has made the former QB safe for a lot of companies, and ultimately for Disney.
The Kaepernick signing, in other words, says a lot more about the distance his message has traveled than how far Disney has come.
When he first took a seat, then a knee, in 2016 and explained his actions (“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color”), Kaepernick prompted many other players to do the same. He also prompted a weeks-long attack by the president, who among other things said protesters were “disrespecting our country” and suggested they should be fired for kneeling. Also following was a possibly related drop in NFL ratings; Kaepernick’s blackballing by NFL owners; a backlash-filled Nike ad campaign; and many impassioned defenders who decried his treatment by NFL owners.
The league, in the aftermath of the kneeling movement he kick-started, in 2018 even rewrote its rules to require players on the field to stand for the anthem.
But Kaepernick is hardly non-grata anymore. As protests against police brutality and on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement took worldwide root following the police killing of George Floyd, they significantly changed Kaepernick’s standing and broadened his acceptance into places he’d never previously found it. Even Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner who oversaw the anthem policy, released a video apologizing and endorsing Black Lives Matter.
The climate made Kaepernick go from outlier to fixture – and, even more, made him a must-have symbol for companies looking to show they are on the right side of history. For a large entertainment outfit, Kaepernick now presents a prize not easily obtained: the chance to appear activist in a moment when some of the country’s biggest celebrities are crying out for action.
Disney was hardly out front in working with Kaepernick even among other entertainment giants. Netflix, Disney’s sometimes more quick-footed rival, had announced a deal to produce a show based on his life a week earlier.
Even Trump appears to have decided Kaepernick is no longer a worthy target for his purposes. While the president continues to wage a culture war – just on Monday he tweeted criticism for NASCAR’s decision to ban Confederate flags and said Bubba Wallace should apologize for the noose “hoax” – he has dramatically changed his stance on Kaepernick. “If he deserves it, he should” the president said about landing a spot on an NFL roster. It was a far cry from his comments at a rally in 2017 that, upon seeing a player knee, an NFL owner should tell a coach to “get that…off the field right now,” using an obscenity. “Out. He’s fired. He’s fired.”
But all of this mainstreaming and revisionism over Kaepernick’s brand of course doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of shots left in the culture war. It just means they won’t be fired over him.
None of the Kaepernick or kneeling acceptance, for instance, speaks to how some of the constituencies that have softened on it will respond when he or others push the protests further, when it goes beyond a kneel to more overtly political messages about the government, about candidates, about the police. Or how Disney will react when they do. Already athletes are objecting to how the NBA, with which ESPN partners on a three-company $24 billion broadcasting deal, has managed the question of messages on jerseys when the league restarts later this month. (Philadelphia 76ers forward Mike Scott criticized the move on Monday as “a bad miss” the limiting nature of the process, in which players can choose from a handful of NBA-approved slogans but do no more.)
Nor, for that matter, does it speak to how ESPN and Disney will react when(ever) the NFL season starts and, say, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, historically outspoken against liberal politicians and causes, chooses to end his recent silence. Or if ratings drop. Or in the event of many other developments that force a more difficult choice than signing a first-look deal with a valuable brand.
The Kaepernick signing is historic – but for the recently fomented cultural change it epitomizes, not for a broader shift it augurs. And certainly not for any long-term change it yet suggests at Disney.
Disney, of course, is not in any way required to practice activism; as a publicly traded firm, it will make decisions on the basis of shareholders, not politics. But activists and academics are also within their rights to tamp down their enthusiasm about the move.
Some commentators on Monday did just that.
“This is more than offering platitudes, they’re spending money,” Todd Boyd, a University of Southern California professor and expert on pop culture and black history, told The Post of the Kaepernick deal. “But they’re also doing something that is within their own self-interest to do. He poses no real risk to their business, other than the money they’re investing.” Boyd noted that Kaepernick’s “iconic value is especially high at the moment.”
Disney is taking the lead from other companies in accepting Kaepernick, showing that America’s most politically cautious media company is changing – but only regarding one personality, only when it’s likely to provide benefit and only after many other institutions have already paved the way. Whether other entities will still follow an activist celebrity no matter where they may go – and whether Disney will in turn continue to follow them – remains the more important and less answerable question.
Bangkok Bank (BBL) is temporarily closing its system for maintenance to improve and increase efficiency, the bank said.
Customers will not able to use the service from July 10 (11pm) to July 11 (8am).
The services that will be switched off are: mobile banking; Bualuang iBanking and Biz iBanking
Services that be closed from July 10 (Midnight) to July 11( 2.30am) are: PromptPay money transfer service from other banks into Bangkok Bank accounts and from Bualuang ATMs; eWallet service; cross-bank bill payment service; payment for goods and services via the internet (e-commerce) with a Bangkok Bank debit card; registration for direct debit service; SMS service via Bualuang ATMs; Bangkok Bank mobile banking and Bualuang iBanking; buying or selling funds and bonds through various banks’ electronic channels; online retail funds transfer, and payment for goods and services via Bualuang ATMs will not receive SMS notification of transactions.
The price of gold rose by Bt300 per baht weight in morning trade on Wednesday (July 8), the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.27am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt26,450 per baht weight and selling price Bt26,550, while gold ornaments cost Bt25,969.08 and Bt27,050, respectively.
At close on Tuesday (July 7), the buying price of a gold bar was Bt26,150 per baht weight and selling price Bt26,250, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt25,681.04 and Bt26,750, respectively.
The spot gold price moved to US$1,794 (Bt56,136) on Wednesday morning after the price rose by $16.4 to $1,809.9 (Bt56,634) per ounce at close on Tuesday, the highest in almost nine years.
Investors were buying gold as a safe-haven asset due to uncertainty following the increasing number of Covid-19 cases worldwide.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 3.16 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 1,376.38 in the morning session on Wednesday (July 8).
A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities expected the index to fall between 1,360 and 1,365 before rebounding due to uncertainty about the Covid-19 outbreak as the number of new cases in the US has increased by approximately 50,000 people per day, adding that this negative sentiment had also caused crude oil price to drop.
However, the index would rebound from speculation, such as in stocks whose second-quarter performance will improve and export stocks that would benefit from the weakening baht.
He recommended that investors buy:
▪︎ Food and electronic stocks that benefit from the weakening baht, such as CPF, GFPT, TFG, KCE, DELTA and HANA.
▪︎ Stocks whose second-quarter performance will improve, such as TOP, PTTGC, SPRC, BGRIM, CKP, TASCO, STA and SPALI.
▪︎ Stocks that benefit from the Cabinet’s domestic tourism stimulus measures, such as MINT, CENTEL, ERW, AOT and AAV.
The SET Index rose by 0.95 points on Tuesday (July 7), or 0.07 per cent, closing at 1,373.22. Total transactions amounted to Bt81.868 billion.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Claire Ballentine · BUSINESS
U.S. stocks slumped, with airlines and hotels particularly hard hit, amid signs that the world economy has a long way to go to get back on track.
Almost six shares fell on the S&P 500 Index for every one that gained. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gauges dropped from a record intraday high in the afternoon as heavyweights such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. turned lower. European shares slipped on concern the economy will take longer to recover.
Gold climbed to the highest since 2011. The dollar strengthened and Treasury yields dipped. Brazil’s currency and stocks slumped as President Jair Bolsonaro said he had tested positive for Covid-19.
Stock investors took a breather after a ferocious rally that fueled the S&P 500’s best winning streak this year. While data show the global economy may be past the worst of the slump, it’s a long road back to pre-crisis levels. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said the renewed spread of coronavirus may threaten the pace of the recovery as businesses and consumers put plans on hold.
After “a five-day rally where the market’s up quite a bit, it’s not so surprising to have a little bit of a pause,” said Jeff Mills, the chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust Co. “It’s just sort of the natural movements of the market. You can’t go up in a straight line every single day.”
The European Commission gave its starkest warning yet about the impact of the pandemic. Officials now forecast a contraction of 8.7% in the euro area this year, a full percentage point deeper than previously predicted. Novavax Inc. surged after it was awarded $1.6 billion in U.S. funding to support large-scale manufacturing of its vaccine candidate.
Elsewhere, most Asian shares dropped, even as Chinese stocks powered ahead for a sixth day, although at a slower pace. The offshore yuan briefly strengthened through the 7 per dollar level for the first time since March.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
– The S&P 500 Index fell 1.1% as of 4 p.m. EDT.
– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sank 0.6%.
– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.7%.
– The MSCI Emerging Market Index decreased 0.9%.
Currencies
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.4%.
– The euro decreased 0.3% to $1.1274.
– The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2543.
– The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 107.55 per dollar.
Bonds
– The yield on 10-year Treasurys dipped four basis points to 0.64%.
– Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.43%.
– Britain’s 10-year yield sank two basis points to 0.18%.
Commodities
– West Texas Intermediate oil fell 0.8% to $40.32 a barrel.
Energy company SPCG Plc is evaluating the impact the Covid-19 outbreak has had on its customers on a case by case basis, chairperson Dr Wandee Khunchornyakong Juljarern said.
She added that a large number of SPCG’s customers are in industrial estates and have the potential of installing solar rooftops. However, she said, the company will check and see if they still want to install the system in the Covid-19 fallout.
Since the company believes the outbreak will have an extended impact on the economy, it aims to cut its costs by Bt300 million this year and revise down its revenue target for 2020 to at least Bt5.5 billion from its previous target of Bt6.7 billion, she said.
The Digital Economy and Society Ministry is expected to sell bid documents this month to develop Digital Park Thailand in the much-touted Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), the ministry’s permanent secretary Ajarin Pattanapanchai said.
The ministry had initially started making the documents available in June last year, but no bidders picked them up as they were reportedly waiting to see progress in the high-speed railway project linking three international airports.
Since the train project has already clinched the winning bid, the ministry has returned to the plan of selling the documents. She said this time the ministry expects to spend three months in selecting qualified bidders and plans to award the contract within this year.
The ministry believes at least two major investors are keen on the project, construction for which should begin next year and it should go into operation by 2022.
The zone should be fully occupied within five years.
The project, expected to cost Bt4 billion, occupies 709 rai in Chonburi’s Sri Racha district, with Phase 1 covering 120 rai. The entire project comprises basic infrastructure, smart facilities, underground electricity cables as well as fibre-optic cables.
She said this zone is just 3 kilometres from the Sri Racha high-speed train station and a transport system will be set up to connect the station with the Digital Park. The authorities aim to woo top global universities to set up campuses at this venue.
The park will cater to six kinds of digital investment, namely hardware and smart equipment, software, digital services and design, communications equipment, digital content and digital infrastructure. The Internet of Things (IOT) Institute will also take up 30 rai in the park.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose 0.95 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 1,373.22 today (July 7), with transactions totalling at Bt81.868 billion with an index high of 1,391.77 and a low of 1,373.20.
During the morning session, a stock analyst at Krungsri Securities said he expected the index to rise 1,385 and 1,400 points on the back of hopes that economic recovery will take a V-shape now that many countries are easing their lockdown measures.
“The market gained positive sentiment after learning that the US services index rose to 57.1 in June, while retail sales in the Euro zone rose 17.8 month-on-month in May and the China purchasing managers’ index rose to 58.4 in June,” the analyst said.
“However, we advise investors to beware of market volatility as Covid-19 cases continue rising in the US, causing some states to put off moves to ease lockdown measures,” he added.
The top 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were STGT, PTT, EA, STA, SUPER, GPSC, CPALL, AOT, GULF and BAM.
As of 4.30pm, the price of crude oil dropped by US$0.58 or 1.43 per cent to $40.05 per barrel, while gold dropped by $8.60 or 0.48 per cent, to $1,784.90 per ounce.
Changes in Asian indices were mixed:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 22,614.69, down 99.75 points, or 0.44 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,345.34, up 12.46 points, or 0.37 per cent, while Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 13,163.98, up 222.26 points, or 1.72 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 25,975.66, down 363.50 points, or 1.38 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,164.17, down 23.76 points, or 1.09 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 12,092.97, down 23.73 points, or 0.20 per cent.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chair of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations (Fetco).
Dr. Wandee Khunchornyakong Juljarern
The ministry’s permanent secretary, Ajarin Pattanapanchai
