Soft Start Predicted For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the five-day winning streak in which it had accelerated more than 80 points or 5.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,430-point plateau and it may take further damage on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key inflation data later this week. The European markets were down 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 financial, industrial, property and resource sectors were mitigated by support from the food and technology companies.

For the day, the index slipped 3.10 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 1,428.03 after trading between 1,422.63 and 1,434.68. Volume was 10.735 billion shares worth 64.242 billion baht. There were 303 decliners and 228 gainers, with 139 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info and CP All Public both fell 0.38 percent, while Thailand Airport was down 0.40 percent, Asset World stumbled 1.62 percent, Banpu plummeted 4.84 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.66 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical improved 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway gained 0.63 percent, B. Grimm sank 0.86 percent, BTS Group plummeted 2.48 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods climbed 1.00 percent, Energy Absolute surged 5.11 percent, Gulf slid 0.45 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.49 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.56 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slumped 1.74 percent, PTT weakened 1.46 percent, PTT Exploration and Production plunged 2.78 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.79 percent, SCG Packaging retreated 1.75 percent, Siam Concrete tanked 2.02 percent, Thai Oil dropped 0.91 percent, True Corporation declined 1.90 percent, TTB Bank advanced 0.99 percent and Kasikornbank and Siam Commercial Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and bounced back and forth across the line before finishing on opposite sides.

The Dow shed 92.63 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 40,736.96, while the NASDAQ jumped 141.28 points or 0.84 percent to close at 17,025.88 and the S&P 500 added 24.47 points or 0.45 percent to end at 5,495.52.

The volatility seen over the course of the trading day came as traders looked ahead to the release of closely watched consumer and producer price inflation data on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

The data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

The Fed is almost universally expected to begin lowering interest rates next week, but there is some debate about if the rate cut will be 25 basis points or 50.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday, ahead of the inflation data and on concerns over the health of the global economy. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery stumbled $2.43 or 3.54 percent to finish at $66.28 per barrel.