Thai Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Wednesday's Trade

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 25 points or 1.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,590-point plateau and it's likely to be rangebound again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid mixed economic and earnings data. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the resource and technology stocks and a mixed picture from the services and financial sectors.

For the day, the index fell 6.56 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 1,593.85. Volume was 11.381 billion shares worth 39.892 billion baht. There were 846 decliners and 489 gainers, with 524 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.47 percent, while Thailand Airport fell 0.34 percent, Asset World stumbled 2.68 percent, Banpu tumbled 2.04 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.63 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical skidded 0.83 percent, B. Grimm slid 0.63 percent, BTS Group was down 0.65 percent, CP All Public improved 0.80 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods strengthened 1.45 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.28 percent, Gulf weakened 0.92 percent, Kasikornbank sank 0.75 percent, Krung Thai Bank plummeted 3.47 percent, Krung Thai Card surrendered 2.63 percent, PTT Oil & Retail jumped 1.83 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tanked 2.17 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 2.87 percent, SCG Packaging added 0.57 percent, Siam Commercial Bank lost 0.49 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.95 percent, Thai Oil cratered 2.88 percent, True Corporation retreated 1.22 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.43 percent and PTT and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street provides little guidance as the major averages opened mixed and hugged the unchanged line throughout the session, finally ending on opposite sides and barely moved.

The Dow shed 10.55 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,976.63, while the NASDAQ dipped 4.31 points or 0.04 percent to close at 12,153.41 and the S&P 600 rose 3.55 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,154.87.

Traders were unhappy with remarks from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, who said that he favored continued interest-rate hikes to counter persistent inflation and added that recession fears are overblown.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. housing starts slid by 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.420 million in March from a revised rate of 1.432 million in February.

In earnings news, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and Netflix all beat the street, while Goldman Sachs and United Airlines missed expectations.

Oil futures settled slightly higher Tuesday as traders assessed Chinese GDP numbers and data showing a drop in eurozone and German investor sentiment. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May rose $0.03 at $80.86 a barrel.