Renewed Consolidation Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,545-point plateau although it’s likely to head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower ahead of key U.S. inflation data later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, finance, energy and technology stocks.

For the day, the index added 4.56 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 1,545.50 after trading between 1,543.21 and 1,550.67. Volume was 10.831 billion shares worth 40.992 billion baht. There were 245 decliners and 217 gainers, with 185 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info added 0.46 percent, while Banpu tumbled 1.82 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.60 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.92 percent, BTS Group was up 0.69 percent, CP All Public perked 0.39 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods jumped 1.90 percent, Energy Absolute fell 0.41 percent, Kasikornbank skidded 1.16 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1.05 percent, Krung Thai Card collected 0.55 percent, PTT Oil & Retail advanced 1.01 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.61 percent, PTT Global Chemical sank 0.71 percent, SCG Packaging lost 0.64 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.32 percent, Thai Oil increased 0.52 percent, True Corporation rallied 1.43 percent, TTB Bank improved 1.17 percent and Siam Commercial Bank, Asset World, B. Grimm, Gulf, PTT, Thailand Airport and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, rallied midday and then finished under water.

The Dow dipped 17.73 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 34,645.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.28 points or 1.04 percent to close at 13,773.61 and the S&P 500 sank 25.56 points or 0.57 percent to end at 4,461.90.

The lower close on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation later today.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting next week; CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 93.0 percent chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged.

A steep drop by shares of Oracle (ORCL) weighed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ, with the software giant plunging by 13.5 percent after the company reported weaker than expected fiscal first quarter revenues and provided disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter.

Oil prices moved sharply higher on Tuesday to a 10-month closing high after the monthly report from (OPEC) showed the oil market may be a lot tighter than initially thought. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.55 or 1.8 percent at $88.84 a barrel.