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President Donald Trump confirmed the import tariff hikes, imposing 20 percent duties on Chinese goods and 25 percent on Canadian and Mexican imports, effective March 4, 2025. The U.S. will also implement reciprocal tariffs against all countries taxing American exports, starting April 2, 2025. In addition, January's inflation resurgence prompted U.S. investors to increasingly shift toward cash holdings, reflecting a broader market move toward risk-off sentiment, while the S&P 500 index declined by 1.4 percent since the end of 2024, marking a break in its multi-year upward trend. However, several global stock markets sustained their growth momentum, bolstered by strong economic conditions, limited exposure to trade protectionist policies, market-specific growth catalysts, and compelling valuations.
SET Senior Executive Vice President Soraphol Tulayasathien observed that the SET Index has entered a correction phase, declining 17.9% as of February’s close from this cycle’s peak. Despite the downturn, dividend yields remained attractive compared to historical levels. Fundamental multipliers appeared notably discounted, with price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios at 12.5-16.6 times, and price-to-book value (P/BV) ratios at 1.2-1.4 times, significantly below historical correction-period averages. During this adjustment period, high P/E stocks experienced the steepest declines, signifying market concerns over risk exposure and overvaluation. The capital market organizations are responding with measures to boost the SET Index recovery through economic growth initiatives, protectionist policy risk mitigation, and market-strengthening programs which focus on new investment attraction, added-value creation among listed companies, and corporate governance advancements.
Key highlights for February
- At the end of February 2025, the SET Index declined 8.4 percent MoM to close at 1,203.72 points, moving in line with the regional peers and representing a YTD decrease of 14.0 percent.
- Compared to the end of 2024, industry groups that outperformed the SET Index were Financials, Agro & Food Industry, Consumer Products, Services, and Resources.
- SET’s and Market for Alternative Investment (mai)’s average daily trading value in February 2025 increased 10.1 percent YoY to THB 52.04 billion (approx. USD 1.53 billion). Local institutional investors' trading proportion also demonstrated an upward trend, staying above 10 percent of total trading value for five consecutive months.
- In February, there was one newly listed company on mai, namely Mother Marketing pcl (MOTHER).
- The Thai stock exchange’s forward P/E ratio at the end of February 2025 was 12.6 times, above the Asian stock market’s average of 12.3 times. The historical P/E ratio stood at 15.3 times, exceeding the Asian stock market’s average of 14.2 times.
- Dividend yield ratio at the end of February 2025 was 4.03 percent, higher than the Asian stock markets’ average of 3.27 percent.
Derivatives Market
- Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX)’s daily trading volume in February 2025 averaged 485,359 contracts, up 24.0 percent from the previous month largely due to the higher trading volume of Single Stock Futures and SET50 Index Futures. The YTD average daily trading volume in 2025 was 434,992 contracts, down 10.1% percent, mainly due to the decline in trading volume of SET50 Index Futures and Gold Online Futures.
