Bangkok (VNA) – Trading on the Stock Exchange ofThailand (SET) was halted on March 13 morning, for the second straight day, asa circuit breaker was triggered after the country’s stock market fell by 10percent, local media reported.
Trading was paused from 9:59am to 10:29am. This is the fifthtime in history a circuit breaker has activated to curb excessive volatility onthe SET.
The SET triggered a circuit breaker four times in the pastto handle high-volatility trading.
The first was in 2006 when the Bank of Thailand temporarilyimposed capital controls. The second and third occurred on October 10 and27 during the 2008 subprime crisis.
The fourth was on March 12 when the SET index stumbled by125.05 points to 1,124.84 points. The index closed the day at 1,114.94 points, down10.8 percent from the previous day and the lowest in eight years.
There are two stages for using a circuit breaker. The firstoccurs if the SET index falls by 10 percent from the previous day's close. Alltrading in listed securities will be halted for 30 minutes, while the second comes in case the index falls by 20 percent, oranother 10 percent, from the previous day's close. Trading in all listedsecurities will be halted for one hour.
The weakening SET index reflected fear of an economicrecession induced by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Thailandreported 75 confirmed cases and one death as of March 13./.