Futures Focus

The SET50 Index closed last week at 988.95 points, a decrease of 3.41 points or 0.34% from the previous week. The most traded SET50 Futures contract S50H17 (expiring in March 2017) was settled at 988.10 points, a decrease of 1 point or 0.1%.

The US stock market rose steadily all week after President Donald Trump said his tax reform proposals would follow the replacement of Obamacare in March. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen also signalled that the Fed would probably raise its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting as the US economy was nearing full employment. The Dow closed up 4.28 points on Friday to finish the week at 20,624.05, an increase of 1.7% from 20,269.37 the week before.

The SET Index stayed close to the previous week’s level after failing to break 1,600 points on Tuesday. Corporate earnings announcements drove a rally early in the week, along with more details of government plans for infrastructure projects to develop logistics capacity and competitiveness. Investors are now awaiting official GDP figures, expected to ahow at least 3% growth in 2016, to be released today. The SET Index on Friday closed up 1.79 points at 1,577.84, a decline of 0.5% from a week earlier.

On the TFEX, daily average trading volume was 314,985 contracts, an increase of 32,041 contracts or 11.3% from the previous week. The most actively traded product was Single Stock Futures with 784,539 contracts, or 196,135 per day. Total market open interest was 1,959,662 contracts, a decrease of 18,644 or 0.9%.