Little Movement Seen For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for Chakri Memorial Day, the Thai stock market had ended the three-day losing streak in which it had slipped not quite 6 points or 0.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,375-point plateau and it's likely to be rangebound again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher ahead of key data points this week. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly higher on Friday as gains from the financial, property, resources, service and technology sectors were offset by weakness from the food, consumption and industrial companies.

For the day, the index perked 1.69 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 1,375.58 after trading between 1,367.59 and 1,377.86. Volume was 11.079 billion shares worth 26.897 billion baht. There were 232 decliners and 199 gainers, with 221 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.49 percent, while Asset World lost 0.48 percent, Banpu plunged 2.70 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.73 percent, Bangkok Expressway fell 0.61 percent, B. Grimm improved 0.91 percent, BTS Group soared 4.27 percent, CP All Public and Siam Commercial Bank both advanced 0.90 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods climbed 1.12 percent, Gulf slumped 0.58 percent, Kasikornbank strengthened 1.22 percent, PTT Exploration and Production increased 0.95 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.63 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.83 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.40 percent, True Corporation surged 2.56 percent, TTB Bank skidded 1.12 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Krung Thai Card, Energy Absolute, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT, Thai Oil, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as the major averages were fairly volatile on Monday but finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow dipped 11.24 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 38,892.80, while the NASDAQ rose 5.43 points or 0.03 percent to close at 16,253.80 and the S&P 500 eased 1.95 points or 0.04 percent to end at 5,202.39.

The choppy trading on the day came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of closely watched inflation data later in the week.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates, as Federal Reserve officials have repeatedly said they need greater confidence inflation is slowing before cutting rates.

Wednesday will also see the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting, which could also shed additional light on officials' thinking on rates.

Oil prices drifted lower on Monday amid slightly easing geopolitical tensions after Israel removed its troops from Southern Gaza. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down $0.48 or 0.55 percent at $86.43 a barrel.