Mild Rebound Anticipated 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 five-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 15 points or 1.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,300-point plateau although it's expected to move back to the upside again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat amid optimism about an end to the record-setting U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly lower on Tuesday as losses from the industrial, service, resource and financial shares were mitigated by support from the food and consumer companies.

For the day, the index lost 5.79 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 1,300.47 after trading between 1,297.63 and 1,309.86. Volume was 6.570 billion shares worth 32.340 billion baht. There were 239 decliners and 210 gainers, with 203 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport spiked 1.80 percent, while Asset World stumbled 1.82 percent, Banpu improved 0.82 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.65 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical lost 0.54 percent, B. Grimm declined 1.91 percent, BTS Group retreated 1.45 percent, CP All Public dropped 1.10 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods soared 3.85 percent, Energy Absolute accelerated 3.42 percent, Gulf slumped 1.14 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.55 percent, Krung Thai Card jumped 1.75 percent, PTT Oil & Retail sank 0.70 percent, PTT Exploration and Production added 0.47 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.93 percent, SCG Packaging vaulted 1.71 percent, Siam Commercial Bank skidded 1.15 percent, Thai Oil rallied 1.39 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.10 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Siam Concrete, Advanced Info, True Corporation, PTT and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is incongruous as the major averages opened mixed and ultimately finished the same way.

The Dow jumped 559.33 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 47,927.96, while the NASDAQ slumped 58.87 points or 0.25 percent to close at 23,468.30 and the S&P 500 rose 14.18 points or 0.21 percent to end at 6,846.61.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders express some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets - especially the possibility of a tech bubble - following recent volatility.

However, valuation concerns continue to hang over the markets, as traders had largely shrugged off worries about the economic impact of the shutdown.

A sharp increase by the price of crude oil has also contributed to considerable strength among energy stocks, which are moving higher along with biotechnology and healthcare stocks.

On the other hand, semiconductor stocks have come under pressure, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 2.0 percent.