Losses May Accelerate For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to 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 beneath the 1,520-point plateau and it's expected to see continued selling pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of key inflation data coming later this week. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index shed 14.07 points or 0.92 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,518.44 after trading as high as 1,536.81. Volume was 11.664 billion shares worth 41.018 billion baht. There were 361 decliners and 113 gainers, with 164 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slid 1.79 percent, while Thailand Airport was down 1.06 percent, Asset World sank 0.93 percent, Banpu lost 0.53 percent, Bangkok Bank retreated 1.45 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical gave up 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway slipped 1.13 percent, B. Grimm weakened 1.32 percent, BTS Group cratered 5.26 percent, CP All Public dove 1.67 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.52 percent, Energy Absolute surrendered 1.29 percent, Gulf tumbled 2.03 percent, Krung Thai Bank dropped 0.99 percent, Krung Thai Card stumbled 1.61 percent, PTT Oil & Retail fell 0.48 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tanked 1.23 percent, PTT Global Chemical slumped 1.27 percent, Thai Oil plunged 1.92 percent, True Corporation plummeted 3.62 percent, TTB Bank skidded 1,17 percent and Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank, SCG Packaging, Siam Concrete and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, made back some ground as the day progressed but still finished solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 158.64 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 35,314.49, while the NASDAQ slumped 110.07 points or 0.79 percent to close at 13,884.32 and the S&P 500 sank 19.06 points or 0.42 percent to end at 4,499.38.

The soft start on Wall Street may have been in response to the downward revision in the ratings of ten smaller banks by Moody's.

The markets got a bit of a boost when the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected U.S. GDP growth to rise by 1.9% this year; it also forecast a bump in the price forecast for oil prices.

In economic news, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to a three-month low of $65.5 billion in June, from a downwardly revised $68.3 billion in May. Also, the National Federation of Independent Business said the NFIB Small Business Optimism index rose for a third straight month in July.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday following an upgrade to this year's GDP growth projections in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.98 at $82.92 a barrel.