Thai Shares To Open To The Downside On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in six straight sessions, slipping more than 40 points or 2.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,360-point plateau and it's tipped to open lower again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild consolidation ahead of key data later this week that could affect the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the food, industrial, property, services and technology sectors.

For the day, the index slipped 4.83 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 1,362.59 after trading between 1,362.05 and 1,372.01. Volume was 18.987 billion shares worth 40.411 billion baht. There were 301 decliners and 201 gainers, with 156 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 0.97 percent, while Thailand Airport skidded 1.15 percent, Asset World retreated 1.58 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.06 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.89 percent, B. Grimm stumbled 1.87 percent, CP All Public surrendered 2.17 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods plunged 2.70 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.44 percent, Gulf weakened 1.75 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.40 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.62 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.57 percent, PTT perked 0.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production strengthened 1.33 percent, SCG Packaging tumbled 1.80 percent, Siam Commercial Bank advanced 0.90 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.37 percent, Thai Oil soared 2.69 percent, True Corporation increased 0.72 percent, TTB Bank improved 1.08 percent and PTT Global Chemical, Banpu, PTT Oil & Retail, Bangkok Expressway and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Monday, rallied in the afternoon but sank back into the red by the close.

The Dow dropped 97.55 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 38,989.83, while the NASDAQ sank 67.43 points or 0.41 percent to close at 16,207.51 and the S&P 500 eased 6.13 points or 0.12 percent to close at 5,130.95.

The weakness on Wall Street was the result of caution on the part of investors, with several significant data points on tap for the coming days.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony will be in focus for clues about the outlook for interest rates. Powell is due to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

Then on Friday is the Labor Department's highly anticipated employment report for February, which also could affect the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures ended lower on Monday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand after OPEC extended its output cuts to the end of the second quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $1.23 or 1.5 percent at 78.74 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will release February figures for consumer prices later today. Overall inflation is expected to slip 0.8 percent on year after falling 1.11 percent in January, while core CPI is tipped to rise 0.47 percent after adding 0.52 percent in the previous month.