Thai Shares May Crack Resistance At 1,300 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in seven straight sessions, adding more than 45 points or 3.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,300-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Tuesday.

The SET finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the food, finance, property, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index added 6.16 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 1,299.78 after trading between 1,287.94 and 1,300.60. Volume was 8.091 billion shares worth 35.280 billion baht. There were 263 gainers and 198 decliners, with 192 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info climbed 1.03 percent, while Asset World soared 4.31 percent, Banpu added 0.83 percent, BTS Group slumped 0.60 percent, CP All Public fell 0.52 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods improved 0.85 percent, Energy Absolute added 0.68 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.60 percent, Krung Thai Bank advanced 0.95 percent, PTT Oil & Retail was up 0.70 percent, PTT stumbled 2.24 percent, PTT Exploration and Production jumped 1.77 percent, Siam Concrete lost 0.44 percent, Thai Oil accelerated 3.52 percent, True Corporation increased 0.89 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.53 percent and Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Krung Thai Card, PTT Global Chemical, SCG Packaging, B. Grimm, Gulf, Bangkok Dusit Medical, Thailand Airport and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday and largely remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow rose 49.23 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 45,883.45, while the NASDAQ jumped 207.65 points or 0.94 percent to end at a record 22,348.75 and the S&P 500 gained 30.99 points or 0.47 percent to close at 6,615.28, also a record.

The strength on Wall Street came following positive comments from President Donald Trump about trade talks between top U.S. and Chinese officials in Europe.

Traders also continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. With recent data showing relatively subdued inflation and a weakening labor market, the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by at least a quarter-point.

Traders are likely to pay close attention to the Fed's accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting comments for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

Crude oil moved sharply higher on Monday amid brewing Middle East tensions and the heightening Russia-Ukraine war even as softening demand concerns surface. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.58 or 0.93 percent at $63.27 per barrel.