Soft Start Predicted For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 30 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,360-point plateau although investors may cash in on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly higher again on Wednesday as gains from the food, service and technology stocks were capped by weakness from the industrial and property sectors.

For the day, the index rose 3.64 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 1,361.10 after trading between 1,355.44 and 1,364.91. Volume was 11.451 billion shares worth 38.553 billion baht. There were 239 decliners and 203 gainers, with 211 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 1.26 percent, while Thailand Airport fell 0.38 percent, Asset World retreated 1.81 percent, Banpu dropped 0.91 percent, Bangkok Bank skidded 1.09 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.89 percent, Bangkok Expressway slid 0.61 percent, B. Grimm sank 0.97 percent, BTS Group rallied 0.81 percent, CP All Public increased 0.44 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.55 percent, Energy Absolute stumbled 1.57 percent, Kasikornbank strengthened 1.60 percent, PTT Oil & Retail shed 0.55 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.32 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.96 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.40 percent, Thai Oil surged 2.61 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.95 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, TTB Bank, Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging, Gulf and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and flat and basically ended the same way.

The Dow shed 42.77 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 38,460.92, while the NASDAQ rose 16.11 points or 0.10 percent to close at 15,712.75 and the S&P 500 perked 1.08 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,071.63.

A positive reaction to the latest corporate earnings news limited any downside on Wall Street, thanks to the likes of Tesla (TSLA), Texas Instruments (TXN), Visa (V) and Mattel (MAT).

Buying interest waned soon thereafter, however, with traders still worried about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will look for clues about the possibility of future rate cuts.

Oil prices dropped on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and on easing tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $0.55 at $82.81 a barrel.