Soft Start Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,535-point plateau and it's likely to be stuck in neutral again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat following the release of U.S. inflation data that offered little clarity for interest rates. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the food, finance, industrial, technology and energy companies.

For the day, the index sank 10.19 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 1,535.31 after trading between 1,533.13 and 1,546.47. Volume was 9.687 billion shares worth 44.312 billion baht. There were 413 decliners and 103 gainers, with 132 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Asset World shed 0.49 percent, while Banpu tanked 1.85 percent, Bangkok Bank rallied 1.52 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical climbed 0.93 percent, Bangkok Expressway was down 0.58 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 3.03 percent, BTS Group weakened 0.69 percent, CP All Public slipped 0.39 percent, Energy Absolute surrendered 3.69 percent, Gulf stumbled 1.07 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.39 percent, Krung Thai Bank skidded 1.04 percent, Krung Thai Card declined 1.60 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 2.50 percent, PTT gained 0.72 percent, PTT Exploration and Production advanced 0.91 percent, SCG Packaging plunged 2.56 percent, Siam Commercial Bank tumbled 1.72 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.96 percent, Thai Oil fell 0.52 percent, True Corporation sank 0.70 percent, TTB Bank slumped 1.16 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, PTT Global Chemical, Advanced Info and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday, quickly plummeted and then recovered to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow sank 70.46 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 34,575.53, while the NASDAQ added 39.97 points or 0.29 percent to close at 13,813.58 and the S&P 500 rose 5.54 points or 0.12 percent to end at 4,467.44.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation in August. The report said the consumer price index climbed by 0.6 percent in August after inching up by 0.2 percent in July.

While the data reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged next week, many economists feel the bigger than expected monthly increase in core prices leaves the door open for another rate hike before the end of the year.

Following the report, CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates a 97.0 percent chance the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged next week. The outlook for November remains more mixed, however, with the FedWatch Tool indicating a 58.0 percent chance rates will remain unchanged and a 40.8 percent chance of another quarter-point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Wednesday on worries about demand after data showed an unexpected jump in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October fell $0.32 or 0.4 percent at $88.52 a barrel.