No Help Yet For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, slumping more than 30 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just shy of the 1,395-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower, ahead of key data and an OPEC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SET finished slightly lower on Monday as losses from the property, service and technology sectors were offset by gains from the resource and industrial stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 4.01 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 1,393.42 after trading between 1,385.33 and 1,397.88. Volume was 10.237 billion shares worth 36.306 billion baht. There were 268 decliners and 187 gainers, with 198 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.46 percent, while Thailand Airport plunged 2.40 percent, Asset World tumbled 1.65 percent, Banpu increased 1.30 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.66 percent, Bangkok Expressway sank 0.63 percent, B. Grimm soared 2.46 percent, CP All Public slid 0.45 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rallied 1.59 percent, Energy Absolute added 0.54 percent, Gulf gained 0.56 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.38 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1.10 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.07 percent, PTT perked 0.72 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tanked 2.20 percent, PTT Global Chemical strengthened 1.32 percent, SCG Packaging retreated 1.32 percent, Siam Commercial Bank improved 0.76 percent, Siam Concrete lost 0.68 percent, Thai Oil rose 0.49 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.69 percent and TTB Bank, PTT Oil & Retail, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Monday, improved midday but then stumbled into the close.

The Dow dropped 56.68 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 35,333.47, while the NASDAQ eased 9.83 points or 0.07 percent to close at 14,241.02 and the S&P 500 fell 8.91 points or 0.20 percent to end at 4,550.43.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of some key economic data in the coming days.

Traders also were looking for additional clues about the outlook for interest rates, with optimism the Fed is done raising rates contributing to recent strength on Wall Street.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said new home sales in U.S. pulled back sharply in October after surging in September.

Crude Oil prices fell on Monday with traders speculating on the likely outcome of Thursday's OPEC meeting to discuss production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January fell $0.68 or 0.9 percent at $74.86 a barrel.