Lower Open Called For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering almost 30 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,245-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on renewed tariff concerns. 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 sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, consumer, finance, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index rallied 17.56 points or 1.43 percent to finish at 1,246.96 after trading between 1,233.44 and 1,250.36. Volume was 9.710 billion shares worth 53.040 billion baht. There were 373 gainers and 113 decliners, with 175 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info increased 1.72 percent, while Thailand Airport sank 0.63 percent, Asset World jumped 1.94 percent, Banpu fell 0.40 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.68 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical skyrocketed 5.19 percent, Bangkok Expressway and True Corporation both expanded 0.93 percent, B. Grimm soared 3.60 percent, BTS Group perked 2.91 percent, CP All Public rose 1.09 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods accelerated 3.49 percent, Energy Absolute surged 4.32 percent, Gulf climbed 1.08 percent, Kasikornbank advanced 0.92 percent, Krung Thai Bank spiked 2.71 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 0.89 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plunged 3.68 percent, PTT rallied 1.56 percent, PTT Exploration and Production lost 0.41 percent, SCG Packaging strengthened 1.69 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.49 percent, Thai Oil was up 1.52 percent, TTB Bank added 0.52 percent and PTT Global Chemical was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Tuesday but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the day in the red, closing near session lows.

The Dow slipped 61.90 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 44,111.74, while the NASDAQ sank 137.03 points or 0.65 percent to end at 20,916.55 and the S&P 500 dropped 30.75 points or 0.49 percent to close at 6,299.19.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected ongoing trade concerns after President Donald Trump said he will be announcing new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week. Trump said planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. could reach as high as 250 percent.

Negative sentiment was also have been generated by a report from the Institute for Supply Management that unexpectedly showed a modest slowdown in the pace of growth by U.S. service sector activity in the month of July.

Early in the session, stocks benefitted from a positive reaction to some of the latest earnings news, including upbeat quarterly results from software company Palantir (PLTR).

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid US pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia, as well as OPEC's recent decision to boost production. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery slumped $1.05 or 1.58 percent to $65.24 per barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will release July data for consumer prices later today; in June, overall inflation was down 0.25 percent on year and core CPI rose an annual 1.06 percent.