Thai Stock Market May Slide On Tuesday

The Thai stock market on Monday ended the two-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 25 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,540-point plateau although may hand back some of those gains on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with weakness from crude oil prices tempered by support from technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The SET finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index climbed 18.47 points or 1.21 percent to finish at 1,540.19. Volume was 28.909 billion shares worth 69.892 billion baht.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be incongruous as the major averages opened lower on Monday; the NASDAQ quickly broke modestly into the green, while the Dow and the S&P 500 remained negative throughout.

The Dow shed 106.99 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 35,101.52, while the NASDAQ rose 24.42 points or 0.16 percent to close at 14,860.18 and the S&P 500 fell 4.16 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,432.36.

Stocks continued to turn in a mixed performance following last Friday’s better than expected U.S. jobs data. The closely watched report from the Labor Department added to economic optimism but also raised concerns about the outlook for monetary policy.

Gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plunging by 2.6 percent. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid another steep drop by the price of the precious metal, as gold for December delivery plummeted $36.60 to $1,726.50 an ounce.

Crude oil prices declined sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand after China imposed travel curbs at many places in the country, aiming to halt the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.80 or 2.6 percent at $66.48 a barrel.