Soft Start Expected For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, adding more than 25 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,280-point plateau although it's likely to open to the downside on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little guidance ahead of key U.S. inflation data later today. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses re likely to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index perked 1.97 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 1,278.05 after trading between 1,274.39 and 1,281.19. Volume was 9.726 billion shares worth 42.552 billion baht. There were 249 gainers and 232 decliners, with 176 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport slumped 1.30 percent, while Asset World surrendered 1.68 percent, Banpu shed 0.41 percent, Bangkok Bank tumbled 1.64 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical jumped 1.93 percent, Bangkok Expressway plunged 2.70 percent, B. Grimm surged 5.93 percent, BTS Group lost 0.60 percent, CP All Public skidded 1.04 percent, Energy Absolute accelerated 2.82 percent, Gulf gained 0.53 percent, Kasikornbank retreated 1.46 percent, Krung Thai Bank dropped 0.96 percent, PTT declined 0.77 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.45 percent, PTT Global Chemical rallied 2.73 percent, SCG Packaging added 0.55 percent, Siam Commercial Bank climbed 1.19 percent, Siam Concrete spiked 2.25 percent, Thai Oil improved 0.74 percent, True Corporation sank 0.88 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.53 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Card, Advanced Info and PTT Oil & Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday and trended generally downward before finishing on opposite sides of the line.

The Dow stumbled 220.42 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 45,490.92, while the NASDAQ rose 6.57 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,886.06 and the S&P 500 added 19.43 points or 0.30 percent to end at 6,532.04.

The early strength on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing a modest decrease in U.S. producer prices in August. The data added to recent optimism about the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates by at next week's monetary policy meeting.

Buying waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation later today - which may also have a significant effect on the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil surged on Wednesday on geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Europe, along with inflation data from the U.S. that has reinforced interest rate cut expectations. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $1.07 or 1.71 percent at $63.70 per barrel.