Tourism, retail stocks picked to profit

After being battered by pandemic closures, tourism and retail stocks stand to benefit from Thailand’s October reopening.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is set to propose a plan to reopen Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan on Oct 1.

Bangkok needs more time to fully inoculate 70% of its population, a criteria for the reopening plan, and the capital is slated to be ready by Oct 15.

Asia Plus Securities (ASPS) expects the tourism industry to start recovering from 2022.

The brokerage believes the government’s upcoming tourism stimulus measures and progress in vaccination will benefit stocks related to reopening, although the overall stock market may be volatile during the period as the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is considering launching new measures to regulate large-cap stocks in the SET50 and SET100 indices with low free…