(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 25 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,450-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Thursday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on a mixed outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little c...
(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 25 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,450-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Thursday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on a mixed outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead. The SET finished modestly higher on Wednesday as gains from the food, consumer, finance, service and technology sectors were capped by weakness from the industrial, property and resource companies. For the day, the index added 6.40 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 1,451.47 after trading between 1,447.82 and 1,463.31. Volume was 14.814 billion shares worth 45.935 billion baht. There were 244 gainers and 239 decliners, with 180 stocks finishing unchanged. Among the actives, Thailand Airport slid 0.42 percent, while Asset World lost 0.58 percent, Banpu dropped 0.86 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.03 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical surged 4.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway was down 0.65 percent, B. Grimm fell 0.49 percent, BTS Group dipped 0.41 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods jumped 1.65 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 3.15 percent, Gulf slumped 1.17 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.68 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.49 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.54 percent, PTT sank 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production stumbled 2.01 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.18 percent, SCG Packaging rose 0.44 percent, Siam Commercial Bank advanced 0.88 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.51 percent, Thai Oil strengthened 1.23 percent and True Corporation, TTB Bank, Advanced Info, PTT Oil & Retail and CP All Public were unchanged. The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday but quickly faded and wound up mixed and little changed. The Dow added 47.21 points or 0.11...
Indian lenders are struggling to convince equity-loving investors to save their money in deposits. Veteran banker Neeraj Gambhir says it would be helpful if banks had more options to raise funds. India’s financialization boom has fueled a culture of investing, with many savers opting for stocks instead of keeping money in banks. That shift, along with strong demand for loans, has created a funding...
Indian lenders are struggling to convince equity-loving investors to save their money in deposits. Veteran banker Neeraj Gambhir says it would be helpful if banks had more options to raise funds. India’s financialization boom has fueled a culture of investing, with many savers opting for stocks instead of keeping money in banks. That shift, along with strong demand for loans, has created a funding challenge for banks, driving the sector’s credit-deposit ratio to a record last month and leading them to ask regulators to relax liquidity rules. The monetary authority could consider allowing banks to sell plain vanilla bonds with shorter tenures, longer-dated money market instruments, and offer market-linked deposits said Gambhir, executive director at Axis Bank Ltd. , India’s third largest private lender. Such tools would give banks alternatives to shore up funds to offset slowing deposit growth, he said. “Since savings are increasingly flowing into non-bank vehicles — mutual funds, insurance companies, alternative investment funds — which then invest in bond markets, banks must access those pools of capital more effectively,” Gambhir said, speaking in an interview. Indian banks have in recent months been reliant on short-term certificates of deposits to fund credit growth. A rush to sell them this year pushed rates on CDs over 7% in January, a near 10-month high, and drove outstanding CD debt to a record of 6.6 trillion rupees ($71.4 billion) in February. Gambhir said allowing banks to sell a broader range of debt securities, such as three- or five-year vanilla bonds, “would deepen the market and diversify funding.” Instruments geared more toward medium-term funding needs could help fill the gap between CDs, which are capped at one-year maturities, and the bonds banks currently have at their disposal. Alternatives could also help lenders appeal to a wider pool of buyers. Currently, banks in India can mainly issue three types of bonds: longer-tenure notes to fund infra...