Thai Shares May See Renewed Selling Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday halted the four-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 30 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,550-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on growth and inflation concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished barely higher on Wednesday as gains from the energy and service stocks were offset by weakness from the food, technology and industrial shares.

For the day, the index rose 0.92 points or 0.06 percent to finish at 1,548.78 after trading between 1,542.66 and 1,554.79. Volume was 13.881 billion shares worth 53.976 billion baht. There were 260 decliners and 203 gainers, with 180 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport eased 0.35 percent, while Asset World climbed 0.98 percent, Banpu skyrocketed 3.70 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.60 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical jumped 1.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway rallied 1.17 percent, B. Grimm plunged 2.26 percent, CP All Public rose 0.39 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.95 percent, Gulf skidded 1.08 percent, Kasikornbank improved 0.77 percent, Krung Thai Bank soared 2.63 percent, PTT Oil & Retail dropped 0.99 percent, PTT strengthened 1.44 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rallied 3.11 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.68 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 4.32 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.43 percent, Siam Concrete fell 0.32 percent, Thai Oil gained 1.03 percent, TTB Bank surged 2.98 percent and Advanced Info, True Corporation, Energy Absolute and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 198.78 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 34,443.19, while the NASDAQ sank 148.48 points or 1.06 percent to end at 13,872.47 and the S&P 500 lost 31.35 points or 0.70 percent to close at 4,465.48.

The continued weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for the global economy and inflation concerns.

Stocks saw further downside following a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing an unexpected acceleration in the pace of U.S. service sector growth in August - sending treasury yields higher.

In other U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing the U.S. trade deficit widened in the month of July.

Crude oil prices extended recent gains and moved higher on Wednesday, lifting the futures contract to a fresh nine-month closing high - fueled by the decision by Russia and Saudi Arabia to extend production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.85 or 1 percent at $87.54 a barrel.