Thai Stock Market May Reverse Monday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Monday, one session after snapping the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 40 points or 2.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,370-point plateau although it may see renewed support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over upcoming earnings, especially among the technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the food, finance, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index dropped 12.59 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 1,369.92 after trading between 1,369.42 and 1,383.51, Volume was 18.726 billion shares worth 51.513 billion baht. There were 320 decliners and 165 gainers, with 163 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.92 percent, while Thailand Airport weakened 1.23 percent, Banpu tanked 3.01 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.92 percent, B. Grimm stumbled 1.89 percent, CP All Public slumped 2.33 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods surrendered 2.21 percent, Energy Absolute crashed 4.43 percent, Gulf retreated 1.66 percent, Kasikornbank plunged 3.98 percent, Krung Thai Bank plummeted 10.50 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 1.09 percent, PTT sank 0.73 percent, PTT Exploration and Production shed 0.67 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.72 percent, Siam Concrete slid 0.37 percent, Thai Oil lost 0.94 percent, True Corporation tumbled 1.83 percent, TTB Bank skyrocketed 6.51 percent and Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging, Asset World, Bangkok Expressway and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened solidly higher, with the Dow and S&P hitting fresh record intraday highs; they faded as the day progressed but still ended well in the green.

The Dow climbed 138.01 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 38,001.81, while the NASDAQ gained 49.32 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,360.29 and the S&P 500 rose 10.62 points or 0.22 percent to end at 4,850.43.

The early strength on Wall Street came on continued optimism about the outlook for earnings from major tech firms, with Intel (INTC), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Netflix (NFLX) among the companies due to release their quarterly results this week.

In economic news, the Conference Board noted a modest decrease in its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in December, continuing to signal underlying weakness in the U.S. economy.

Oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East, and extreme cold weather in North America. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled at $75.19 a barrel, gaining $1.78 or about 2.4 percent.