Higher Open Predicted For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had more than 20 points or 1.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,525-point plateau and it's looking at continued upside at Wednesday's open.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure split the difference.

The SET finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, energy, industrial and financial shares.

For the day, the index rose 2.49 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 1,526.30 after trading between 1,519.28 and 1,533.74. Volume was 11.886 billion shares worth 42.464 billion baht. There were 217 decliners and 209 gainers, with 204 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport slid 0.35 percent, while Banpu gained 0.53 percent, Bangkok Bank rose 0.30 percent, Bangkok Expressway accelerated 2.27 percent, B. Grimm increased 0.68 percent, BTS Group gathered 0.65 percent, CP All Public tumbled 1.98 percent, Gulf lost 0.51 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail jumped 1.89 percent, PTT strengthened 1.45 percent, PTT Global Chemical spiked 2.68 percent, SCG Packaging surged 3.90 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete improved 0.31 percent, Thai Oil rallied 2.06 percent, True Corporation retreated 1.45 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.60 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank, Asset World, Advanced Info, Energy Absolute and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened flat on Tuesday but moved generally higher as the day progressed and ended in the green.

The Dow added 26.83 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 35,438.07, while the NASDAQ climbed 85.69 points or 0.61 percent to close at 14,144.56 and the S&P 500 rose 12.82 points or 0.28 percent to end at 4,567.46.

The higher close on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to the latest batch of earnings news from big-name companies such as 3M (MMM), chemical giant Dow Inc. (DOW) and General Electric (GE).

Traders also remain optimistic about the Federal Reserve wrapping up its recent series of interest rate hikes ahead of today's monetary policy decision. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points, but traders are hopeful the rate hike will be the last following recent encouraging inflation data.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing U.S. consumer confidence improved more than expected in July.

Crude oil futures settled notably higher Tuesday on optimism about increased Chinese demand after policymakers pledged support to shore up growth in the world's second largest economy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September gained $0.89 or 1.1 percent at $79.63 a barrel, the highest settlement since mid-April.

Closer to home, Thailand may release June data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In May, imports were down 3.4 percent on year and exports fell 4.6 percent for a trade deficit of $1.80 billion.