Higher Open Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Tuesday ended the four-day slide in which it had slumped more than 30 points or 2.1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,400-point plateau and it's looking at another firm open again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, finance, industrial, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index gained 8.00 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 1,401.42 after trading between 1,394.04 and 1,406.08. Volume was 10.979 billion shares worth 37.080 billion baht.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gathered 0.46 percent, while Thailand Airport sank 0.82 percent, Asset World spiked 1.68 percent, Bangkok Bank and B. Grimm both climbed 1.00 percent, BTS Group was up 0.70 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rallied 1.56 percent, Energy Absolute increased 1.08 percent, Gulf accelerated 1.66 percent, Kasikornbank rose 0.38 percent, Krung Thai Bank jumped 1.64 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 1.62 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slumped 1.29 percent, PTT Global Chemical gained 0.65 percent, SCG Packaging soared 2.00 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.50 percent, Siam Concrete strengthened 1.38 percent, Thai Oil perked 0.49 percent, True Corporation advanced 0.83 percent, TTB Bank added 0.64 percent and Banpu, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT, CP All Public, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and spent much of the day bouncing back and forth across the line before ending modestly higher.

The Dow gained 83.51 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 35,416.98, while the NASDAQ added 40.73 points or 0.29 percent to close at 14,281.76 and the S&P 500 rose 4.46 points or 0.10 percent to end at 4,554.89.

The choppy performance on Wall Street was the result of conflicting commentary regarding interest rates from Federal Reserve governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman.

Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute event, Waller said he is "increasingly confident that policy is currently well positioned to slow the economy and get inflation back to 2 percent."

But then Bowman said during a Utah Bankers Association and Salt Lake Chamber breakfast that she continues to expect the Fed we will need to increase rates further to keep policy sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Tuesday on hopes that OPEC will extend output cuts at Thursday's ministerial meeting. A weak dollar contributed as well to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended up $1.55 or 2.1 percent at $76.41 a barrel.

Closer to home, the central bank in Thailand will conclude its monetary policy meeting later today and then announce its decision on interest rates. The bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at 2.50 percent.