Thai Stock Market May Extend Tuesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up just 3 points or 0.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,380-point plateau and it may take further damage on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continued profit taking and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the food, consumer, industrial, property and technology sectors.

For the day, the index shed 6.26 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 1,381.07 after trading between 1,376.65 and 1,389.06. Volume was 14.366 billion shares worth 40.460 billion baht. There were 404 decliners and 127 gainers, with 129 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.96 percent, while Asset World lost 0.51 percent, Banpu tanked 2.52 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.07 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.89 percent, Bangkok Expressway increased 1.29 percent, B. Grimm plunged 3.45 percent, BTS Group slumped 2.68 percent, CP All Public soared 2.73 percent, Energy Absolute improved 0.66 percent, Gulf spiked 1.71 percent, Kasikornbank jumped 1.67 percent, Krung Thai Bank rallied 1.27 percent, PTT Oil & Retail advanced 1.08 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.67 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 6.50 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.48 percent, True Corporation retreated 1.50 percent and TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Card, Siam Concrete, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, Thai Oil and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained that way, finishing solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 64.19 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 38,563.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.87 points or 0.92 percent to end at 15,630.78 and the S&P 500 sank 30.06 points or 0.60 percent to close at 4,975.51.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing anxiety about the outlook for interest rates following last week's hotter-than-expectation inflation data.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point in March, while the chances of a quarter point rate cut in early May have fallen to 33.8 percent.

Meanwhile, a strong gain by Walmart (WMT) helped limit the downside for the Dow, with the retail giant surging by 3.2 percent after reporting fourth quarter results that exceeded estimates and announcing a deal to acquire TV maker Vizio (VZIO) for $2.3 billion.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday, reflecting ongoing concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery slumped $1.01 to $78.18 a barrel, while the more actively traded crude for April delivery tumbled $1.42 to $77.04 a barrel.