Steady Start Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Tuesday, one say after ending the four-day losing streak in which it had dropped almost 20 points or 1.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,360-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of the next round of economic data, and skepticism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the food, industrial, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index fell 3.67 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 1,362.70 after trading between 1,361.27 and 1,368.95. Volume was 11.335 billion shares worth 33.884 billion baht. There were 250 decliners and 213 gainers, with 195 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport slumped 1.15 percent, while Asset World advanced 1.03 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.36 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.88 percent, B. Grimm skidded 0.98 percent, BTS Group accelerated 1.69 percent, CP All Public was down 0.43 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.87 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.25 percent, Gulf gained 0.60 percent, Kasikornbank slid 0.37 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.59 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 1.15 percent, PTT stumbled 1.49 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 2.67 percent, SCG Packaging rallied 2.24 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete added 0.41 percent, Thai Oil jumped 1.94 percent, True Corporation lost 0.59 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.17 percent and Advanced Info, Banpu, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT Exploration and Production and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday finished the same way.

The Dow shed 216.73 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 38,852.86, while the NASDAQ advanced 99.09 points or 0.59 percent to close at a record 17,019.88 and the S&P 500 perked 1.32 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,306.04.

The continued advance by the NASDAQ came on a sharp increase by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling surging 7.1 percent to a record closing high.

Meanwhile, a steep drop by shares of Merck (MRK) weighed on the Dow, as the drug giant tumbled by 2.6 percent to its lowest closing level in well over a month.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board noted an unexpectedly significant improvement in consumer confidence in May.

Oil prices rose Tuesday on hopes demand for oil will pick up in the U.S. driving season, and on expectations that OPEC will extend its production cuts into the next quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.11 or 2.7 percent at $79.83 a barrel.