Thai Bourse Tipped To Open Under Pressure

The Thai stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 15 points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just shy of the 1,660-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing anxiety over the outlook for interest rates and tumbling oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to open under pressure.

The SET finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and energy producers.

For the day, the index lost 9.15 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 1,659.48 after trading between 1,656.50 and 1,667.99. Volume was 14.281 billion shares worth 55.186 billion baht. There were 1,018 decliners and 523 gainers, with 457 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.95 percent, while Thailand Airport slumped 1.37 percent, Banpu sank 0.88 percent, Bangkok Bank surrendered 1.51 percent, B. Grimm weakened 1.26 percent, CP All Public jumped 1.53 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.23 percent, Gulf lost 0.46 percent, Kasikornbank plunged 2.15 percent, Krung Thai Bank retreated 1.14 percent, Krung Thai Card slid 0.42 percent, PTT stumbled 1.50 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tanked 2.19 percent, SCG Packaging slipped 0.47 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.75 percent, Thai Oil was down 1.32 percent, TTB Bank tumbled 1.42 percent and PTT Oil & Retail, Bangkok Dusit Medical and PTT Global Chemical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but faded late, allowing only the NASDAQ to finish in the green.

The Dow shed 84.50 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 33,045.09, while the NASDAQ rose 14.77 points or 0.13 percent to close at 11,507.07 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.29 points or 0.16 percent to end at 3,991.05.

The mixed close on Wall Street followed the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s most recent monetary policy meeting. The minutes revealed a “few participants” favored raising rates by 50 basis points versus the 25 basis point rate hike that was ultimately announced.

The minutes noted all participants continued to anticipate that ongoing rate increases would be appropriate to achieve the Fed’s dual goals of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Wednesday, extending their losing streak to six consecutive sessions on concerns about the outlook for global demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery plunged $2.41 or 3.1 percent to $73.95 a barrel on its first day as the front month contract.