Thai Stock Market Likely To Open To The Downside On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Tuesday's holiday for Constitution Day, the Thai stock market had finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 30 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,450-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with weakness expected from the computer, semiconductor and housing sectors. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Monday following losses from the food, consumer, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index fell 4.43 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 1,447.53 after trading between 1,441.99 and 1,450.41. Volume was 11.476 billion shares worth 35.890 billion baht. There were 313 decliners and 149 gainers, with 198 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport was down 0.82 percent, while Banpu tumbled 1.72 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.66 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.98 percent, Bangkok Expressway slid 1.34 percent, BTS Group dipped 0.87 percent, CP All Public fell 0.40 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods sank 0.83 percent, Energy Absolute stumbled 1.94 percent, Gulf skidded 1.15 percent, Kasikornbank rose 0.32 percent, Krung Thai Bank soared 3.86 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.52 percent, PTT Oil & Retail declined 1.42 percent, PTT lost 0.78 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slumped 1.17 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.39 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.42 percent, Siam Concrete tanked 2.45 percent, Thai Oil surrendered 1.94 percent and TTB Bank, SCG Packaging, Asset World, Advanced Info, True Corporation and B. Grimm were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened flat on Tuesday and hugged the line for most of the session before sinking firmly into the red late in the day.

The Dow dropped 154.10 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 44,247.83, while the NASDAQ sank 49.45 points or 0.25 percent to close at 19,687.24 and the S&P 500 fell 17.94 points or 0.30 percent to end at 6,034.91.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came as traders continued to cash in on recent strength in the markets ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched report on consumer price inflation later today.

While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower rates by another 25 basis points next week, the data could impact the outlook for future rate cuts by the central bank.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 86.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next week but a 69.1 percent chance the central bank will then leave rates unchanged in late January.

Oil futures settled higher on Tuesday amid hopes that demand from China will increase following recent stimulus measures announced by the Chinese government. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $0.22 or 0.32 percent at $68.59 a barrel.