Lower Open Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market on Tuesday ended the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 15 points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,465-point plateau and it’s expected to see renewed consolidation on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index climbed 15,83 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 1,464.66 after trading between 1,449.64 and 1,468.14. Volume was 8.178 billion shares worth 52.609 billion baht. There were 366 gainers and 135 decliners, with 166 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info spiked 2.31 percent, while Thailand Airport collected 1.17 percent, Asset World rallied 1.59 percent, Bangkok Bank strengthened 1.66 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical increased 1.67 percent, Bangkok Expressway rose 0.61 percent, B. Grimm accelerated 2.92 percent, BTS Group picked up 1.33 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods improved 0.83 percent, Energy Absolute spiked 1.68 percent, Gulf strengthened 1.32 percent, Kasikornbank climbed 1.33 percent, Krung Thai Bank advanced 0.97 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.51 percent, PTT sank 0.74 percent, PTT Global Chemical increased 0.83 percent, SCG Packaging surged 4.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.92 percent, Siam Concrete gathered 1.24 percent, Thai Oil fell 0.49 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.51 percent and True Corporation, Banpu, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT Exploration and Production and CP All Public were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 173.18 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 42,156.97, while the NASDAQ plummeted 278.81 points or 1.53 percent to close at 17,910.36 and the S&P sank 53.73 points or 0.93 percent to end at 5,708.75.

The weakness on Wall Street came on rising tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Israel. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others in recent Israeli airstrikes.

A senior White House official said earlier in the day that the U.S. had indications Iran was preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel, contributing to the early sell-off by stocks.

The news from the Middle East largely overshadowed separate report showing a continued contraction by U.S. manufacturing activity in September and an unexpected increase by U.S. job openings in August.

Oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid the possibility of tight supplies due to an escalation in tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November closed up $1.66 or nearly 2.5 percent at $69.83 a barrel.