Soft Start Predicted For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 30 points or 2.3 percent in that span. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,300-point plateau and it’s looking at another rough session on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on disappointing earnings news and soft data. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SET finished slightly lower on Wednesday as losses from the financial, property, resource, service and technology sectors were mitigated by support from the food, consumer and industrial stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 3.46 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 1,298.08 after trading between 1,293.95 and 1,301.55. Volume was 8.401 billion shares worth 29.631 billion baht. There were 253 gainers and 226 decliners, with 177 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info skidded 0.89 percent, while Thailand Airport eased 0.43 percent, Asset World added 0.53 percent, Banpu slumped 0.98 percent, Bangkok Bank sank 0.75 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical stumbled 0.93 percent, Bangkok Expressway spiked 1.92 percent, B. Grimm gained 0.45 percent, BTS Group tumbled 1.82 percent, CP All Public declined 1.32 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.85 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 22.04 percent, Kasikornbank and PTT both dropped 0.78 percent, Krung Thai Card rallied 1.29 percent, PTT Oil & Retail shed 0.63 percent, PTT Exploration and Production retreated 1.38 percent, SCG Packaging jumped 1.82 percent, Thai Oil improved 0.48 percent, TTB Bank plummeted 3.47 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, PTT Global Chemical, Siam Concrete, True Corporation and Gulf were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened deep in the red on Wednesday and only moved lower as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow plummeted 504.22 points or 1.25 percent to finish at 39,853.87, while the NASDAQ plunged 654.94 points or 3.64 percent to close at 17,342.41 and the S&P 500 tumbled 128.61 points or 2.31 percent to end at 5,427.13.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to disappointing corporate earnings news from companies like Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

In economic news, the Commerce Department unexpectedly reported a continued decrease in new home sales in the U.S. in June.

Oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $0.63 or 0.81 percent at $77.59 a barrel, snapping a three-day losing streak.

Closer to home, Thailand will release June figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in May, imports were down 1.7 percent and exports rose 7.2 percent for a trade surplus of $660 million.