Rebound Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Monday, one session after ending the seven-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 85 points or 6.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,270-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, supported by the oil, finance and technology sectors. The European and U.S. markets saw modest upside and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit. The SET finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors. For the day, the index dropped 11.60 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 1,270.49 after trading between 1,262.41 and 1,275.88. Volume was 7.757 billion shares worth 43.230 billion baht. There were 328 decliners and 162 gainers, with 172 stocks finishing unchanged. Among the actives, Advanced Info climbed 1.07 percent, while Thailand Airport crashed 3.13 percent, Asset World sank 0.68 percent, Banpu retreated 1.69 percent, Bangkok Bank dropped 0.97 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical plunged 2.16 percent, Bangkok Expressway cratered 2.96 percent, B. Grimm weakened 2.31 percent, BTS Group gained 0.84 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tumbled 1.91 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 5.15 percent, Gulf slumped 1.72 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.63 percent, Krung Thai Bank fell 0.42 percent, Krung Thai Card stumbled 1.93 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 1.77 percent, PTT and Thai Oil both gave up 1.63 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slid 0.80 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.97 percent, SCG Packaging lost 0.64 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete surrendered 2.35 percent, True Corporation rallied 4.96 percent, TTB Bank added 0.51 percent and CP All Public was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Monday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow climbed 167.01 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 44,470.41, while the NASDAQ rallied 190.87 points or 0.98 percent to close at 19,714.27 and the S&P 500 gained 40.45 points or 0.67 percent to end at 6,066.44.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, as traders picked up stocks at somewhat reduced levels following Friday's sharp pullback.

While Friday's slump partly reflected new tariff threats from President Donald Trump, traders largely shrugged off his latest threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S.

Amid a light day on the U.S. economic front, traders were also looking ahead to the release of several key events in the coming days, especially consumer and producer inflation reports and congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Oil prices climbed higher on Monday amid concerns about possible supply shortage due to the latest sanctions by U.S. on Iran's crude exports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled higher by $1.32 or about 1.85% at $72.32 a barrel.