Lower Open Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for Makha Bucha Day, the Thai stock market had ended the two-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 20 points or 1.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,400-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of key economic data later this week. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial, industrial, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index fell 4.33 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 1,398.14 after trading between 1,396.77 and 1,404.26. Volume was 16.101 billion shares worth 48.419 billion baht. There were 273 decliners and 194 gainers, with 186 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info declined 1.44 percent, while Thailand Airport added 0.39 percent, Asset World lost 0.50 percent, Banpu plummeted 4.92 percent, Bangkok Bank tumbled 1.72 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical weakened 1.67 percent, B. Grimm skidded 0.91 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.60 percent, Energy Absolute slumped 1.25 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.40 percent, Krung Thai Bank stumbled 1.81 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.57 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surrendered 2.65 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 1.94 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.84 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rallied 1.35 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.73 percent, True Corporation skyrocketed 10.69 percent, TTB Bank collected 1.08 percent and Gulf, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, Thai Oil, CP All Public, Bangkok Expressway and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but faded as the day progressed, ending with mild losses.

The Dow shed 62.30 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 39,069.23, while the NASDAQ lost 20.57 points or 0.13 percent to close at 15,976.25 and the S&P 500 fell 19.27 points or 0.38 percent to end at 5,069.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders seem be reluctant to make significant moves as they digest last week's gains, which lifted the Dow and S&P 500 to new record highs.

Traders were also cautious ahead of key inflation reports later this week from Germany, France and Spain - as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve's favored core measure of personal consumption expenditure prices.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a continued rebound in new home sales in the U.S. in January, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices pared early losses and climbed higher on Monday as continued attacks by Houthi militants in the Red Sea route raised concerns about supply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $77.58 a barrel.