Thai Stock Market Due For Support On Tuesday

The Thai stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, retreating almost 60 points or 3.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,590-point plateau although it’s expected to halt its slide on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive as the markets look to recover from heavy selling following the discovery of a new coronavirus strain. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The SET finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares and energy producers.

For the day, the index sank 20.92 points or 1.30 percent to finish at 1.589.69 after trading between 1,587.78 and 1,617.55. Volume was 33.564 billion shares worth 115.806 billion baht. There were 1,538 decliners and 511 gainers, with 310 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info soared 2.93 percent, while Thailand Airport plunged 5.16 percent, Bangkok Bank tanked 3.70 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 2.16 percent, Bangkok Expressway retreated 1.75 percent, BTS Group tumbled 3.72 percent, CP All Public shed 0.83 percent, Delta Electronics surged 5.74 percent, Gulf stumbled 1.84 percent, Kasikornbank plummeted 4.21 percent, Krung Thai Card slumped 3.56 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 0.98 percent, PTT weakened 2.70 percent, PTT Exploration and Production dropped 2.58 percent, PTT Global Chemical skidded 2.15 percent, SCG Packaging fell 1.58 percent, Siam Commercial Bank gave away 2.76 percent, Siam Concrete slid 1.04 percent, True Corporation sank 0.86 percent, TTB Bank was down 1.64 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods and Krung Thai Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened firmly higher on Monday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow climbed 236.60 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 35,135.94, while the NASDAQ surged 291.18 points or 1.88 percent to close at 15,782.83 and the S&P 500 gained 60.65 points or 1.32 percent to end at 4,655.

Bargain hunting contributed to the strength on Wall Street after Friday’s steep drop dragged the major averages down to their lowest closing levels in at least a month. News of a new coronavirus variant contributed to the sell-off as traders worried the pandemic would continue to weigh on the global economy.

But the South African doctor who treated early cases of the new variant told the BBC countries could be panicking unnecessarily and the symptoms she had seen were extremely mild.

President Joe Biden also told reporters there is no need for the U.S. to reimpose lockdowns as a result of the new variant, helping lift stocks to new highs.

In U.S. economic news, the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales rebounded by much more than expected in October.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher Monday, bouncing back and regaining some ground after Friday’s setback as traders looked ahead to OPEC meetings. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $1.80 or 2.6 percent at $69.95 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide October numbers for industrial production, current account, retail sales and its coincident index later today. Industrial production is expected to rise 1.6 percent on year after slipping 1.28 percent in September. The current account deficit in September was $1.3 billion, while retail sales dropped 8.1 percent on year and the score on the coincident was 126.5.

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