Steady Start Seen For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping almost 30 points or 2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,470-point plateau, although it may stop the bleeding on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key employment data later this week. 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 Monday as losses from the food, finance and energy stocks were mitigated by support from the services and technology companies.

For the day, the index eased 1.97 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 1,469.46 after trading between 1,461.66 and 1,478.01. Volume was 10.523 billion shares worth 45.365 billion baht. There were 370 decliners and 121 gainers, with 153 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport climbed 1.08 percent, while Asset World stumbled 1.54 percent, Bangkok Bank dipped 0.30 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.93 percent, Bangkok Expressway tanked 2.41 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 3.48 percent, BTS Group slumped 2.00 percent, CP All Public added 0.41 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tumbled 1.93 percent, Energy Absolute slid 0.49 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.53 percent, Krung Thai Card fell 0.57 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 1.07 percent, PTT dropped 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production declined 0.58 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 2.90 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.98 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.33 percent, Thai Oil retreated 1.49 percent, True Corporation sank 0.70 percent, TTB Bank lost 0.58 percent and Kasikornbank, SCG Packaging, Advanced Info, Banpu and Gulf were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow shed 74.15 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 33,433.35, while the NASDAQ jumped 88.45 points or 0.67 percent to close at 13,307.77 and the S&P 500 perked 0.34 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,288.39.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to hang over the markets ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a surge by treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note jumping to its highest level in almost sixteen years.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management noted a modest slowdown in the pace of contraction in U.S. manufacturing activity in September. Also, the Commerce Department said construction spending in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in August.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday, hurt by a stronger dollar and concerns about prospects of rising supplies in the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.97 or 2.2 percent at $88.82 a barrel.