Little Movement Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Tuesday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had slipped more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,375-point plateau and it's called rangebound again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain ahead of the FOMC's rate decision and statement later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the financials, properties and service stocks were offset by support from the food and technology sectors.

For the day, the index slipped 3.14 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 1,373.14 after trading between 1,370.70 and 1,378.34. Volume was 20.167 billion shares worth 42.508 billion baht. There were 242 decliners and 224 gainers, with 182 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info added 0.46 percent, while Thailand Airport slid 0.41 percent, Asset World lost 0.50 percent, Banpu plunged 2.31 percent, Bangkok Bank sank 0.70 percent, B. Grimm advanced 0.91 percent, BTS Group plummeted 9.02 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods surged 3.30 percent, Energy Absolute soared 2.55 percent, Gulf gained 0.57 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.41 percent, Krung Thai Bank retreated 1.23 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.11 percent, PTT Oil & Retail fell 0.55 percent, PTT declined 0.45 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tumbled 2.01 percent, SCG Packaging improved 0.79 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.95 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.74 percent, Thai Oil climbed 0.92 percent, True Corporation declined 0.84 percent and TTB Bank, PTT Global Chemical, CP All Public, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday; the Dow turned higher and finished in the green, while the NASDAQ remained under water throughout the session and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line before ending slightly in the red.

The Dow climbed 133.86 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 38,467.31, while the NASDAQ dropped 118.15 points or 0.76 percent to close at 15,509.90 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.96 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,924.97.

The pullback by the NASDAQ came as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the tech sector ahead of the release of quarterly results from the likes of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), software giant Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta Platforms (META).

Uncertainty ahead of today's Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement may also have inspired traders to book profits. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement could have a significant impact on the outlook for rates.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted an unexpected increase in job openings in December. Also, the Conference Board reported a continued improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in January.

Crude oil prices moved sharply on Tuesday, largely offsetting the steep drop in the previous session after the International Monetary Fund raised its global growth forecast for 2024. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery jumped $1.04 or 1.4 percent to $77.82 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide December data for imports, exports, trade balance, current account and industrial production later today. In November, imports were up 9.5 percent on year and exports rose 3.9 percent for a trade deficit of $0.20 billion. The current account deficit was $1.20 billion in November, while industrial production sank 4.71 percent.