Soft Start Seen For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping more than a dozen points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,590-point plateau and it's expected to see continued consolidation on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of key U.S. inflation data. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the food, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index fell 8.07 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 1,594.30 after trading between 1,591.47 and 1,602.71. Volume was 10.044 billion shares worth 79.098 billion baht. There were 295 decliners and 139 gainers, with 203 stocks finishing unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street remains weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely stayed that way throughout the trading session, although ending well off daily lows.

The Dow dropped 131.59 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 51,359.92, while the NASDAQ dipped 22.84 points or 0.09 percent to close at 26,797.54 and the S&P 500 fell 12.85 points or 0.17 percent to end at 7,670.84.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of closely watched inflation data later today. The data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting late next month.

Crude oil prices could not hold early gains and turned significantly lower Tuesday on reports that crude oil exports from Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports are recovering from an attack on a key pipeline earlier this month. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $2.90 or 3.1 percent to $89.70 a barrel.

Despite the pullback by the price of crude oil, treasury yields turned higher over the course of the session, extending a recent upward trend.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board noted unexpected deterioration in U.S. consumer confidence in September.

Closer to home, Thailand will release August numbers for imports, exports, trade balance, current account and industrial production later today. In July, imports were up 35.5 percent on year and exports rose an annual 22.3 percent for a roughly flat trade balance. The current account deficit was $1.600 billion, while industrial output added 0.46 percent on year.