TRUMP TARIFF TSUNAMI SINKS REGIONAL SHARES

RECAP: Asian shares fell to their heaviest level in two months yesterday, extending a global selloff in stocks after US President Donald Trump's latest tariff measures drove investors into safe haven assets.

- NUNTAWUN POLKUAMDEE AND NAREEARAT WIRIYAPONG

The trade row dragged 3.15% ahead of the three-day-week to a heavyweight energy and banking stocks led the decline.

The SET index moved in a range of 1,122.51 and 1,176.84 points this week, before yesterday at 1,125.21, down 0.43% from the previous week, with daily turnover averaging 50.74 billion baht.

Retail investors were net buyers of 7.22 billion baht. Institutional investors were net sellers at 5.35 billion baht, followed by brokerages at 1.29 billion and foreign investors at 572.71 million.

NEWSMAKERS: President Trump signed an order to impose reciprocal tariffs on round 50 billion of imports, targeting rates, among them China 46%, EU 34% and 24%, Vietnam 46% and Thailand 36%, effective April 9. A universal base rate of 10% will be applied to countries not listed, effective April 5.

Bloomberg Economics calculates that the effective tax rate the US now charges on more than $1 trillion of imported goods may climb to 23% - higher than at any point in more than a century.

A global selloff in bank shares turned southward with a collapse in Japanese bank stocks on Friday to their worst weekly loss in 40 years while US and European lenders continued to decline, as fear of a global recession were in markets.

The yuan slid forecast its first quarter GDP contracting by 2.8% from the previous year. The economy grew at a 2.3% pace in the fourth quarter.