The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 8.75 points or 0.67 per cent to 1,305.54 in the morning session today (August 21).
A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities said he expected the index to fluctuate between 1,290 and 1,305 despite positive sentiment from China’s intention to hold a meeting with the US to review the first phase of trade agreement.
“The index will be under pressure from uncertainty over the impact Covid-19 is having on US economic data and political situation in Thailand,” the analyst said.
He recommended that investors buy:
– Stocks that benefit from weakening baht, such as CPF, GFPT, TU, KCE, HANA and DELTA.
– Domestic play stocks, such as ADVANC, INTUCH, HMPRO, GLOBAL, DOHOME, COM7 and CRC.
SET Index closed at 1,297 yesterday, down 12 points or 0.91 per cent, while total transactions tallied at Bt49 billion due to uncertainty following the economic slowdown after the US Federal Reserve forecast that the US economy still faces risks from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The price of gold rose by Bt200 per baht weight in morning trade on Friday (August 21), the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.23am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt28,850 per baht weight and selling price Bt 28,950, while gold ornaments cost Bt28,334.04 and Bt29,450, respectively.
At close on Thursday (August 20), the buying price of a gold bar was Bt28,650 per baht weight and selling price Bt28,750 while gold ornaments cost Bt28,136.96 and Bt29,250, respectively.
The Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society said that Hong Kong gold price rose by HK$230, opening at $18,050 (Bt73,216.52) per tael this morning.
The Comex (Commodity Exchange) gold price to be delivered in December dropped by US$23.8, or 1.21 per cent, to $1,946.5 (Bt61,187.08) per ounce at yesterday’s close.
The gold price moved to negative territory yesterday as investors were disappointed with the US Federal Reserve’s move to maintain their monetary policy although they expressed concern about the US economy.
Loxley launches CareChek platform to manage Covid-19 risk at work
Aug 20. 2020Loxley director Vasant Chatikavanij,right
By The Nation
Loxley subsidiary K2 Venture Capital (K2VC) has joined hands with start-up IfYouCan to create the “CareChek” platform, which helps workplaces proactively manage Covid-19 risk among their workers by getting and analysing results quickly and accurately.
Loxley Group established a working team to monitor and prevent the epidemic from spreading through implementing various measures, said Loxley director Vasant Chatikavanij.
CareChek uses predictive analytics and big data analysis through data inputs such as self-reported symptoms, geo-location, demographic and medical research data to target employees who might be at a high risk of transmitting infection.
This differs from pure contact tracing methodology, which is more deterministic and highly manpower intensive, said Loxley.
“For the past three months, we have been testing CareChek with our own employees and we’re now ready to start offering it to other interested organisations. For non-profit organisations where workers are at high risk of Covid-19 infection, Loxley is happy to offer the solution for free as part of our effort to help society get through this difficult period together. We also plan to add new capabilities for the CareChek platform to track other serious diseases,” said Vasant.
The platform works via IfYouCan’s mobile application NotifyMe, which users can install. After registering, users are asked to answer a daily health survey used to calculate their individual risk score.
The app also allows employees to receive official announcements about Covid19 measures, with translations and a text-to-speech function for the visually impaired.
The system will also report the result of individual risk assessments and alert users when they approach any potential high-risk areas.
Through the platform dashboard, organisation admin officials receive near real-time information of the risk assessed by the platform’s algorithm, allowing them to manage personnel more effectively to prevent the virus from spreading.
Total Access Communication (Dtac) customers will be able to experience amazing 5G speeds on the 26GHz frequency by trying out a new 26GHz-5G smartphone at any of the seven Dtac shops nationwide.
The high-band spectrum, also known as millimetre waves, which will be primarily for industry use, allows the highest speeds, lowest latencies and ultra-high capacity for a wide range of 5G service applications, making them critical for a future of massive internet of things applications.
Dtac chief executive officer Sharad Mehrotra, said, “We want customers to experience the ultra-high-speed 5G that is possible on our high-band spectrum. This year, we will continue exploring use cases for millimetre wave [mmWave] 5G. And we’re also tripling our capacity on mid-band spectrum, which all our customers can enjoy.”
Dtac’s 26GHz frequency band is compatible with a wide range of devices designed for high-brand spectrum. In a report in March, the GSMA said that some 70 5G devices have been announced with mmWave compatibility.
The 5G high-band experience can now be tested on HUAWEI Mate Xs, a foldable smartphone which can support 5G mmWave or 26GHz frequency band exclusively at the following Dtac shops:
CPF (Thailand) Public Company Limited (CPFTH), a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited, termed its bond issuance of 2.5 times oversubscription with final issuance of Bt20 billion a success.
In a press release, the company said it was “delighted” by the feedback from the offering of five series of debentures to institutional and/or high net worth investors during the period of August 17-19.
CP chief financial officer Paisan Chirakitcharern said the subscription “was over the company’s target”, which resulted in CPFTH’s decision to exercise the greenshoe option to support demand from investors.
The seven joint lead arrangers were Krungthai Bank, KasikornBank, Siam Commercial Bank, Government Savings Bank, CIMB Thai Bank, TMB Bank and Phatra Securities, the statement added.
Hospitality giant Minor International (MINT) says it is reducing costs and cutting its investment budget by 30 per cent (around Bt10 billion) to reach break-even point faster.
Chaiyapat Paitoon, MINT chief strategy officer, said the company’s second-half performance is expected to improve after the company’s businesses bottomed out in April and May this year and its hotels and restaurants gradually reopened.
“These positive sentiments will boost the company’s second-half revenue above the first-quarter earnings of Bt30.244 billion and reduce losses,” he said.
For the second half of the year, MINT’s hotel arm will focus on domestic tourists as demand rises after the lockdown, while it expects to see a clearer picture of the travel bubble scheme for foreign tourists.
“For the restaurant business, we expect to see growth in revenue though a decline in delivery services. However, same-store sales growth is expected to recover from the third quarter onwards,” he said.
“[MINT’s] lifestyle business is still performing well, especially online sales”, driven partly by demand for disinfectants, he added.
The company is working on reducing costs by over 20 per cent year on year and has cut the investment budget by 30 per cent or Bt7 billion to Bt10 billion, he said.
This would enable the company to reach the break-even point faster from a hotel occupancy rate of 30-40 per cent instead of the previous of 50-60 per cent.
“Meanwhile the restaurant business is expected to reach break-even point from sales at 69 per cent from the previous of 80 per cent.”
He added that the company’s cash flow was at a level above Bt36 billion, while its credit line was Bt26 billion, resulting in liquidity of up to Bt60 billion – sufficient for operating costs and repayment of debts.
“In the second half, Bt3.5 billion in long-term debts will come due, while Bt4 billion debentures will reach maturity in the first half of 2021,” he added.
Minister orders energy agencies to create more jobs
EconAug 21. 2020Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow
By The Nation
New Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow has instructed state energy agencies to draw up job creation plans to boost the virus-hit economy.
They must also seek ways to ease energy costs for people and consider measures to peg the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas for vehicles (NGV).
He asked them to share the plans with one another in the next two weeks.
He said his policies focused on boosting the subdued economy, creating jobs, and laying a foundation for the country’s future energy direction.
The planned community power plants project would continue, he said, with 30 days needed to revise details. The project is expected to invite applications to construct the plants late this year, with commercial operation expected to begin early next year.
On planned bidding for petroleum exploration and production rights, he has asked the Department of Minerals Fuel to gauge the number of potential bidders to assess whether it is worth calling an auction at present.
Patricia Mongkhonvanit, director general at the PDMO
By The Nation
Despite public debt approaching its limit of sustainability, the Finance Ministry denies the country is on the brink of bankruptcy and will take a further Bt48 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank late this month
Local media are speculating that the government is facing financial collapse following a Cabinet-approved Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) plan to borrow more Bt214 billion to finance a potentially larger budget deficit than expected.
Patricia Mongkhonvanit, director general at the PDMO, said on Thursday (August 20) that government has adequate treasury reserves but admitted it needs to borrow more in case revenue falls further than estimated.
The national budget passed for fiscal year 2020 totals Bt3.2 trillion. To plug the gap left by a projected shortfall in revenue, the government originally planned to borrow Bt469 billion. However, the budget bill allows the government to borrow as much as Bt680 billion to cover the deficit, meaning another Bt214 billion can be borrowed, Patricia noted.
If the government borrows the full Bt680 billion, public debt will rise to 52.4 per cent of GDP, up from the current 45.83 per cent, she said.
Public debt is expected to rise further to 57.8 per cent of GDP in the 2021 fiscal year (October 2020 to September 2021). The Finance Ministry has set the sustainable public debt limit at 60 per cent of GDP .
“It is too early to say whether we’ll need to raise the limit beyond 60 per cent of GDP because [sustainability of] debt levels depend on changing economic conditions,” she said.
By global standards, Thailand’s public debt is still relatively manageable, given debt in some countries is above 100 per cent of GDP.
Economists have been urging the Thai government to spend more to boost the economy and help workers and small businesses suffering the impact of Covid-19.
However, Thai public debt is under strong pressure from the sharp economic contraction and high cost of dealing with coronavirus fallout.
The government also plans to borrow Bt1 trillion under the Covid-19 recovery emergency decree. Part of that total is $1.5 billion (Bt48 billion) from the Asian Development Bank, the contract for which will be signed by the Finance Ministry in late August or early September, said the PDMO chief.
Open source solutions provider Red Hat ‘opens the future’ with virtual conference
CorporateAug 20. 2020Andrew Habgood, senior director, Partners & Alliances, Red Hat Asia Pacific
By The Nation
Red Hat Inc, a global leader in open source solutions, kicked off its virtual Red Hat Asia Pacific Partner Conference 2020 on Thursday (August 20) bringing together more than 2,200 Red Hat partners, distributors, systems integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and solution providers.
This year’s theme is “The Future is OPEN”, and featured keynotes, panel discussions and breakout sessions centre around open source technologies that can help accelerate the market’s recovery during the Covid-19 outbreak, with a focus on application modernisation and integration, IT automation, containers, hybrid cloud and open source innovation.
The conference provides a platform for partners to exchange ideas, engage in meaningful discussions, and network directly with Red Hat leaders and others in the partner ecosystem.
The virtual conference began with a keynote presentation by Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, senior vice president and general manager for Red Hat Asia Pacific, followed by sessions with Frank Feldmann, vice president of Red Hat’s APAC Office of Technology, and Andrew Habgood, senior director for Red Hat Asia Pacific’s partners and alliances.
Other notable guest speakers include Sandra Ng, group vice president, IDC’s Asia Pacific practice group, and Arunava Chakrabarty, director, Channel Scale and Partners for the Asia Pacific Japan territory at Intel who will provide insights into the regional partner landscape and future market opportunities.
The event is also showcasing partner solution stories and case studies by Viju Chakarapany, senior director and regional head, solution architecture and enablement for Red Hat Asia Pacific.
In addition to presentations from Red Hat executives and award-winning partners such as Sify Technologies and Intel, the Red Hat Asia Pacific Partner Conference 2020 acts as a hub for new ideas, collaborative opportunities and a network for partners wanting to define the business of the future.
Other event highlights include:
• The Red Hat Asia Pacific Partner Awards 2020
• Breakout sessions and tracks conducted by Red Hat experts on emerging technology
• Panel discussion with experts from IDC, Red Hat, Intel and ecosystem partners on addressing new challenges in a changing market
• Insights by IDC on accelerating the market recovery journey
Habgood, senior director, partners and alliances, Red Hat Asia Pacific, said: “We want to continue celebrating the collaboration we share with our partners in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference is a defining event for the open future we are nurturing together with our partners across different verticals. With many businesses in the region embracing open source and its role in transforming industries, it is inspiring to see them embark on their cloud journeys using Red Hat solutions to build world-class enterprise-grade solutions.”
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,296.79 today (August 20), down 11.88 points or 0.91 per cent. The volume of total transactions was Bt49.084 billion with an index high of 1,303.72 and a low of 1,292.59.
During the morning session, a stock analyst at Krungsri Securities predicted the index would fall between 1,300 and 1,305 points after the US Federal Reserve predicted economic uncertainty amid the Covid-19 fallout and said it was imperative that a new economic stimulus package is rolled out.
“Apart from this, the index will also come under pressure from the two new domestic Covid-19 cases in Thailand yesterday,” he said.
The top 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were CPALL, PTT, KBANK, AOT, PTTGC, ADVANC, SCC, HANA, SCB and STGT.
As of 4.30pm, the price of crude oil fell by US$0.34 or 0.79 per cent to $42.59 per barrel, while gold fell by $30.70 or 1.56 per cent, to $1,939.60 per ounce.
Other Asian indices were also sliding:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 22,880.62, down 229.99 points or 1.00 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,363.90, down 44.23 points or 1.30 per cent, while Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 13,320.92, down 159.93 points or 1.19 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 24,791.39, down 387.52 points or 1.54 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,274.22, down 86.32 points or 3.66 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 12,362.64, down 416.00 points or 3.26 per cent.
Loxley director Vasant Chatikavanij,right
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Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow
Patricia Mongkhonvanit, director general at the PDMO
Andrew Habgood, senior director, Partners & Alliances, Red Hat Asia Pacific
