Winning Streak Expected To End For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has climbed higher in five straight sessions, gathering almost 30 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,620-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on growth concerns, with energy and technology stocks expected to weigh. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The SET finished modestly higher on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index gained 9.93 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 1,618.80 after trading between 1,606.48 and 1,620.98. Volume was 18.467 billion shares worth 57.673 billion baht. There were 848 gainers and 740 decliners, with 615 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info climbed 0.99 percent, while Thailand Airport fell 0.35 percent, Asset World jumped 1.98 percent, Banpu advanced 0.79 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.37 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical strengthened 1.89 percent, Bangkok Expressway improved 1.12 percent, B. Grimm added 0.64 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rallied 2.00 percent, Energy Absolute rose 0.30 percent, IRPC gained 0.59 percent, Krung Thai Bank increased 0.62 percent, Krung Thai Card advanced 1.28 percent, PTT lost 0.68 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gathered 0.97 percent, PTT Global Chemical spiked 1.64 percent, SCG Packaging was up 0.45 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete sank 0.54 percent, Thai Oil surged 2.00 percent, True Corporation perked 0.81 percent, TTB Bank accelerated 0.84 percent and BTS Group, CP All Public, Gulf, Kasikornbank and PTT Oil & Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow shed 58.13 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 32,774.41, while the NASDAQ tumbled 150.53 points or 1.19 percent to end at 12,493.93 and the S&P 500 fell 17.59 points or 0.42 percent to close at 4,122.47.

Technology stocks helped to lead Wall Street lower, with semiconductor stocks turning in some of the worst performances after Micron Technology (MU) warned that it may miss its previous guidance.

The weakness also came as traders looked ahead to the release of a highly anticipated reading on U.S. consumer price inflation later today.

Crude oil futures settled modestly lower Tuesday on concerns about outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended lower by $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $90.50 a barrel.

Closer to home, the central bank in Thailand will wrap up its monetary policy meeting later today and then announce its decision on interest rates; the bank is widely expected to hike its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, from 0.50 percent to 0.75 percent.