Thai Bourse May Halt Losing Streak On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping almost 15 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,250-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, with strength likely from the oil and technology sectors. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to also move to the upside.

The SET finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index slipped 3.23 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 1,248.03 after trading between 1,246.86 and 1,260.75. Volume was 7.996 billion shares worth 46.883 billion baht. There were 334 decliners and 145 gainers, with 176 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info added 0.34 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 0.68 percent, Asset World retreated 1.68 percent, Banpu surrendered 2.89 percent, Bangkok Bank slipped 0.32 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical gained 0.48 percent, Bangkok Expressway dropped 2.86 percent, B. Grimm plunged 4.07 percent, BTS Group crashed 3.01 percent, CP All Public shed 0.56 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods fell 0.42 percent, Energy Absolute cratered 3.08 percent, Gulf and TTB Bank both skidded 1.04 percent, Kasikornbank dipped 0.30 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.41 percent, Krung Thai Card tumbled 1.80 percent, PTT Oil & Retail improved 0.81 percent, PTT sank 0.78 percent, PTT Exploration and Production contracted 1.76 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 1.85 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 3.37 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.39 percent, Siam Concrete stumbled 1.83 percent, Thai Oil weakened 1.55 percent and True Corporation declined 1.67 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but moved largely to the upside throughout the day and ended with modest gains.

The Dow climbed 147.16 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 45,565.23, while the NASDAQ added 45.87 points or 0.21 percent to close at 21,590.14 and the S&P 500 rose 15.46 points or 0.24 percent to end at a record 6,481.40.

The modest strength on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the release of highly anticipated earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA). After the markets closed, NVIDIA reported earnings that increased from the same period last year and beat estimates.

Traders were also reluctant to make big moves ahead of Friday's Commerce Department report on personal income and spending for July, which includes the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on consumer price inflation.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 87.2 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting in September.

Crude oil surged on Wednesday after U.S. crude and gasoline inventories fell more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.83 or 1.33 percent at $64.08 per barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release July figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to rise 4.9 percent on year, easing from 13.1 percent in June. Exports are called higher by an annual 8.2 percent, down from 15.5 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at $600 million following the $1.060 billion surplus a month earlier.