Thai Bourse May Crack Resistance At 1,400 Points

The Thai stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, improving almost 25 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,400-point plateau and it’s got a solid lead again for Tuesday’s trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing treasuries and ahead of key data later this week. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the technology, food, property and service sectors were capped by weakness from the financial and energy companies.

For the day, the index added 7.62 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 1,395.85 after trading between 1,381.21 and 1,398.04. Volume was 11.156 billion shares worth 36.757 billion baht. There were 253 decliners and 229 gainers, with 169 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 0.92 percent, while Thailand Airport perked 0.37 percent, Asset World and Krung Thai Card both gained 0.57 percent, Banpu soared 2.68 percent, Bangkok Bank rose 0.32 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.95 percent, Bangkok Expressway slid 0.61 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 5.15 percent, CP All Public spiked 1.82 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods climbed 1.08 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 7.22 percent, Gulf gathered 0.58 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.38 percent, PTT sank 0.75 percent, Siam Commercial Bank skidded 1.00 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.68 percent, Thai Oil was up0.52 percent, True Corporation increased 0.77 percent, TTB Bank added 0.60 percent and Krung Thai Bank, PTT Global Chemical, SCG Packaging, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT Exploration and Production and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is strong as the major averages opened higher on Monday and mostly improved as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 511.37 points or 1.58 percent to finish at 32,928.96, while the NASDAQ rallied 146.47 points or 1.16 percent to end at 12,789.48 and the S&P 500 gained 49.45 points or 1.20 percent to close at 4,166.82.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, with traders picking up stocks at reduced levels following last week’s sell-off – which reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and concerns in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, traders continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

With the Fed widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the potential for further rate hikes.

Oil prices declined sharply Monday amid easing concerns about supply disruptions from the Middle East region. Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement and the non-farm payroll data for October on Friday. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December slumped $3.23 or 3.8 percent at $82.31 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide September data for industrial production, current account and imports, exports and trade balance later today. In August, industrial production fell 7.53 percent on year, while the current account showed a surplus of $0.400 billion. Imports were down 11.9 percent on year and exports fell 1.8 percent for a trade surplus of $1.20 billion.