Thai Stock Market May Find Traction On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, stumbling almost 25 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,390-point plateau although it's expected to stop the bleeding on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky ahead of a possible U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly lower on Monday as losses from the food, finance and service sectors were offset by support from the resource and technology companies.

For the day, the index eased 2.44 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 1,387.13 after trading between 1,378.08 and 1,392.54. Volume was 12.053 billion shares worth 46.166 billion baht. There were 357 decliners and 150 gainers, with 142 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info jumped 1.35 percent, while Thailand Airport perked 0.37 percent, Asset World plunged 2.75 percent, Banpu surged 3.90 percent, Bangkok Bank tumbled 1.91 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical plummeted 5.61 percent, B. Grimm climbed 1.27 percent, BTS Group slumped 0.68 percent, CP All Public dropped 0.90 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rallied 1.66 percent, Gulf gained 0.56 percent, Krung Thai Bank skidded 1.06 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 1.09 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 0.55 percent, PTT increased 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production sank 0.93 percent, PTT Global Chemical and SCG Packaging both added 0.69 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.51 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.69 percent, Thai Oil rose 0.53 percent, True Corporation spiked 1.74 percent, TTB Bank strengthened 1.26 percent and Kasikornbank, Energy Absolute and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened sharply lower on Monday before recovering to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 54.77 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 34,337.87, while the NASDAQ slipped 30.36 points or 0.22 percent to close at 13,767.74 and the S&P 500 fell 3.69 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,411.55.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as some traders looked to cash in on last week's rally, which lifted the tech-heavy NASDAQ to a nearly two-month closing high.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to news credit rating agency Moody's has lowered its outlook for the U.S. credit rating to negative from stable amid concerns about a possible government shutdown.

The selling pressure was offset by a New York Federal Reserve report showing a modest decrease in consumer inflation expectations, sparking optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices moved up on Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid some optimism about the outlook for energy demand, as well as a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $78.26 a barrel.