Rebound Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after ending the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 30 points or 2.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,170-point plateau although it figures to bounce higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets moved higher and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Monday as losses from the industrial, property, services and technology sectors were mitigated by support from the food, finance and resource stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 3.56 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 1,170.20 after trading between 1,165.46 and 1,178.51. Volume was 7.607 billion shares worth 35.927 billion baht. There were 250 decliners and 211 gainers, with 199 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info plunged 3.00 percent, while Thailand Airport tumbled 1.88 percent, Asset World tanked 2.08 percent, Banpu slumped 0.91 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.69 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.83 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 4.17 percent, BTS Group skidded 0.90 percent, CP All Public declined 1.50 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rose 0.41 percent, Energy Absolute cratered 4.69 percent, Gulf surged 3.74 percent, Kasikornbank rallied 2.35 percent, Krung Thai Bank retreated 1.27 percent, PTT jumped 1.72 percent, PTT Exploration and Production lost 0.45 percent, PTT Global Chemical stumbled 1.58 percent, Siam Commercial Bank fell 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.88 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.52 percent and Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging, True Corporation, PTT Oil & Retail, Thai Oil and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday, dipped midday but still finished solidly in the green.

The Dow jumped 353.44 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 41,841.63, while the NASDAQ climbed 54.58 points or 0.31 percent to close at 17,808.66 and the S&P 500 improved 36.18 points or 0.64 percent to end at 5,675.12.

The strength on Wall Street came as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness, which saw the S&P 500 plunge into correction territory last Thursday.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to the Commerce Department's report on U.S. retail sales in the month of February, which wasn't as bad as feared.

However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. While the Fed is almost universally expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement and officials' latest projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures rose on Monday on hopes of improved demand from China after plans to boost consumer spending, and on possible supply disruptions due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $0.40 or 0.6 percent at $67.58 a barrel.