Chantana Taweeratsin, director of securities analysis department of Kasikorn securities, said the banking group’s second quarter earnings were 5 per cent above estimates, mainly due to lower provision. While TMB’s loans grew a mere 1 per cent rate in the quarter, interest and fee incomes were better than expected. According to asset appraisal, NPLs at the bank will increase this quarter.

The department has adjusted downward the banking group’s 2019 earnings growth estimate to 5 per cent (Bt8.5 billion), from the previous estimate of 6 per cent (Bt9.4 billion) due to the drop in BBL’s earnings forecast.

Investors are advised to invest in SCB because of its high asset growth, supporting the progress of NIM. SCB Life saw increased profits, thanks to its reasonable price at Bt152 per share.

BAY is another option due to higher profit from having the most outstanding loans, lowest NPLs in the industry and the ideal price of Bt44.5 per share.

Trinity Securities’ analysts said the company had slashed its net profit estimate of the banking group in 2019 to Bt172 billion, or a 2.2 per cent growth year on year. The company had expected a combined profit of Bt174 billion. The company recommends SCB due to its reasonable price of Bt160 per cent per share and the likely benefits from the government’s short-term economy plan. With the highest credit approval, TCAP stands out in the small bank grouping as its stock price is below book value.

Adisorn Mungpanchol , assistant of director of analysis department at Phillip Securities, said the company expected banking group’s profit to grow 6 per cent to Bt222 billions. It revised up BAY earnings forecast but downgraded TMB’s.

TMB Bank reported a net profit in the second quarter of Bt1.9 billion, decreasing 5.4 per cent from the same period last year.

Taweelap Rittapirom, executive vice president of Bangkok bank, said banking will fare better in the second half due to the government’s economic stimulus policies, such as the grassroots support measures, drought remedy plans and price fixing of agricultural produce.

“We expect banking performance will continue to improve in the second half of the year. However, there are factors to be monitored closely, especially impact from the trade war, foreign conflicts, and government policy implementations. The business sector has to prepare and follow the situation closely.” Taweelap said.

The protesters, mostly residents living in the three southeastern provinces affected by the huge project, will also be joined by Bangkok-based activists opposed to some parts of it.

They planned to march from the capital’s central railway station to Government House to submit a petition to the Cabinet and from there to the Easter Economic Corridor office in western Bangkok.

The following day the group will make a similar march to the TOT hall in northwest Bangkok, which is serving as a temporary Parliament House, to submit a petition to parliamentarians.

They say they are opposed to three key aspects of urban planning under the EEC: it is not suitable for some parts of the region; no public hearings have been held for local residents to have their say on it; and it is only for the benefit of certain groups of people, while being detrimental to the region’s food security, economy and way of life.

Suriya said he would encourage Chinese companies affected by the US-China trade war to invest more in Thailand, and conduct a roadshow soon in China and Japan as part of that effort.

The Board of Investment, meanwhile, would be asked to readjust its investment conditions on a case-by-case basis to make them more attractive to individual investors.

All megaprojects including the planned extension of Suvarnabhumi Airport would be encouraged to use domestic raw materials for construction where possible.

Under the fourth aspect of policy, those launching SME businesses would be funded by low-interest loans guaranteed by the ministry.

Foreign, individual, and proprietary investors net bought Bt2.18 billion, Bt657.97 million and Bt708.23 million respectively.

The Singapore Striate Times index dropped 20.74 points  to 3,357.22 yesterday from Friday’s close, while the  Hong Kong Hang Seng Index closed down at 28,371.26,  falling 394.14 points from Friday.

The Bursa Malaysia (KLSE) Stock Market dipped 2.79 points to 1,655.40 from Friday’s close as the Indonesia Stock market (IDX) dropped 22.99 points to 6,433.55 on Monday.

The Asia stock market is weighed down by the expectation that the  Federal Reserve of Fed, in its  meeting on July 30-31, will cut interest rate by a mere 0.25 per cent,  lower than the earlier forecast of  0.50 per cent.  Meanwhile, the flare-up of violence in Hong Kong on Sunday,  impacted  investment confidence in the city.

Thai export dropped in June for the fourth consecutive month amid fear of an negative impact on the economy among stock brokers.

Lalida Jivanantapravat, deputy director-general/ Department of Business Development under the Commerce Ministry, said the online initiative was launched after the department’s visit to Pei Neu Village of Lin’an district in Zhejiang, a prototype for the “Taobao Village Model”, using e-commerce as the main tool to promote occupation and generate income.

The Commerce Ministry has applied the Taobao Village Model with local entrepreneurs and manufacturers of Otop and community products, aimed at gathering local communities and create a prototype of ‘local e-commerce communities’ in Thailand.

“The department conducted a field survey to potential communities, based on their foundation including a strong leadership and outstanding identity, and has selected five as pioneers for the online community project,” Lalida said.

They are Ban Na Kha Community in Udon Thani; Ban Dan Kwian Community in Nakhon Ratchasima; Ban Wang Som Sa Community in Phitsanulok; Bai Cha (tea leaf) Community in Chiang Rai; and Kuan Kanun Community in Phatthalung.

The department, together with provincial commerce offices, educational institutions, community members, and Lazada, will joinly provide integrated supports and suggestions to individual entrepreneurs of the communities selected for the project. Their products will enter into an e-commerce platform between July and September this year, starting from the Ban Na Kha community. The project will create a prototype ‘e-commerce community’ under the title ‘Smart Village Online’.

” Lazada Group will open its website for online selling of products from these communities. The move is to promote identities and awareness of their products. Lazada will also provide technical know-how to the communities in terms of increasing sales and consumer accessibility, ” said Lalida, adding that it will also offer shopping privileges.

She said the department will expand sales and marketing channels for the communities to other e-commerce platforms, as well as to provide marketing support in the form of ‘Omni-Channel Marketing’ to other offline stores with the cooperation with King Power and Central Group.

The US-China trade dispute is having a knock-on effect in Southeast Asia, vice chairman Montri Mahaplerkpong said this week, with Washington now claiming that Chinese products are being exported to the US via Vietnam under the guise of Vietnamese goods.

The US could implement measures to reduce Vietnamese exports, damaging the Thai economy because Southeast Asia as a whole represents Thailand’s top export destination, accounting for 25 per cent of total exports, Montri said.

He warned that the US could target Asean member-countries one by one, starting with Vietnam, which has a large trade surplus with the US, as does Thailand.

Vietnam ranks 20th on the list of countries with significant trade surpluses with the US and Thailand 11th, according to Montri.

The top nine nations on that list are at risk of trade tariffs from the US, he said. Thailand’s trade surplus is projected to rise due to an upsurge in Chinese investment aimed at establishing manufacturing bases here. Thailand is thus at risk of being caught directly in the trade-war crossfire.

Montri said the impacts on Thailand from ongoing trade tensions between Japan and South Korea remain limited, but if they impose tariffs on one another, Thailand would suffer because it exports electronic and automotive parts to both.

He does not expect Thailand to be harmed by US trade tensions with India and the European Union, but cautions that trade spats around the world will hurt the global economy and ultimately Thai exports. Countries should thus be embracing free trade to boost global growth.

The FTI will be represented at the Asean-Apec meeting at the end of July to encourage all Asean nations to push for free trade among the 21 Apec countries, including the US, China, Japan and South Korea.

Representatives of the private sector in each country will jointly submit suggestions to that effect at the meeting, Montri said.

“The trade-war issue has not been widely discussed at these meetings in the past. If all members cooperate to find a solution, then there is potential for progress to be made.”

He believes the government should be preparing now to cope with the expected fallout, such as by diversifying export destinations and reducing exporters’ reliance on countries such as China. Thai manufacturing parts going to China have dropped off alarmingly due to the US tariffs, he noted.

Thailand should also focus more on exporting consumer goods, such as durian and other fruits, for which the overseas market is growing strongly, he said.

It was the fourth straight month of reduced exports but the figures suggested a relative uptick, compared with the 6.2 per cent contraction in May, she said.

However, if gold and oil-related products were taken out of the equation, June exports would show a much higher contraction of 8 per cent, due to the high value of gold exports.

Imports in June were US$18.197 billion, down 9.4 per cent year on year, resulting in an overall trade surplus of US$3.212 billion.

In January-June 2019 the value of Thailand’s exports stood at US$122.971 billion, down 2.9 per cent on the first six months of 2018, while imports were valued at US$119.027 billion, down 2.41 per cent year on year.

If Thailand’s exports can reach an average of US$21 billion per month for the rest of the year, the country still has a chance of seeing an overall expansion in exports of between one per cent and two per cent in 2019 – and Pimchanok does expect exports to rise in the last quarter of the year.

In June Thailand’s exports were down across the board to its major trading partners: 2.1 per cent to the US, 14.9 per cent to China, 1.9 per cent to Japan and a whopping 7.7 per cent to the European Union.

The requested information covers the past activities of the agencies and how they are related to the government’s 12 policies, he added.

The minister’s permanent secretary Prasong Poontaneat said Uttama had asked the state agencies to review the new economic measures to be implemented by the government such as those intended to bridge many kinds of gaps.

He added that the government has an adequate fiscal 2019 budget to implement the new economic policies.

Lawan Saengsanit, director general of the Fiscal Policy Office, said the office would quickly finish their study for restructuring personal income tax as ordered by Uttama. The study will also cover alternative sources of government income in the event that income tax is reduced.

Restructuring income taxes is among the promises made by Phalang Pracharat Party during the recent election campaign.

“Several state enterprise showed a financial result in this fiscal year better than last year and also better than early estimates, especially the energy industry such as Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand [EGAT], the Provincial Electricity Authority [PEA], and PTT Plc,” he said.

Meanwhile, Government Saving Bank and Government Housing Bank also reported financial results improved over the same period of last year, as the both state owned banks had developed their business and services to better meet customer demand.

The top five state agencies for generating revenue in the first nine months and made high payments to the Finance Ministry were: Government Lottery Office at Bt32.6 billion paid to the Finance Ministry, PTT Plc at Bt29 billion to the Finance Ministry, EGAT at Bt18.9 billion, Government Saving Bank at Bt16.5 billion and PEA at Bt14.9 billion.