Thai Stock Market May Extend Its Losses On Tuesday

Ahead of Monday’s holiday for Labor Day, the Thai stock market had turned lower again, one session after snapping the three-day slide in which it had dropped almost 30 points or 1.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,670-point plateau and it may take further damage on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with markets that were closed on Monday likely to see heavy selling as they catch up on negative sentiment; others may see mild recovery. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished barely lower on Friday as losses from the financial shares were mitigated by support from the energy producers.

For the day, the index 0.30 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 1,667.44 after trading between 1,666.84 and 1,673.54. Volume was 23.654 billion shares worth 69.402 billion baht. There were 975 decliners and 730 gainers, with 525 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 2.27 percent, while Thailand Airport shed 0.37 percent, Banpu advanced 0.82 percent, Bangkok Bank slid 0.38 percent, Energy Absolute rose 0.28 percent, Gulf added 0.52 percent, IRPC jumped 1.75 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.33 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.87 percent, PTT Oil & Retail accelerated 2.46 percent, PTT perked 0.67 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rallied 2.03 percent, PTT Global Chemical surged 2.56 percent, Siam Commercial Bank spiked 2.22 percent, Siam Concrete soared 2.78 percent, Tisco plummeted 8.79 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.78 percent and Krung Thai Bank was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as stocks moved back and forth across the unchanged line on Monday before a late rally pushed them into the green.

The Dow climbed 84.29 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 33,061.50, while the NASDAQ surged 201.38 points or 1.63 percent to close at 12,536.02 and the S&P 500 gained 23.45 points or 0.57 percent to end at 4,155.38.

The rebound on Wall Street comes as traders picked up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness in the markets. The drop seen early in the session dragged the NASDAQ down to its lowest intraday level in well over a year, while the S&P 500 also hit a nearly one-month intraday low.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management said growth in U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly slowed in April. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed a modest increase in U.S. construction spending in March.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Monday, recovering from sharp early losses as traders looked ahead to Wednesday’s monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve and Thursday’s OPEC meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.48 or 0.5 percent at $105.17 a barrel.

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