Thai Stock Market Expected To Open Higher On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, sinking more than 25 points or 2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,340-point plateau although it's due for support on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on conflicting signals about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource, services and technology sectors.

For the day, the index stumbled 14.09 points or 1.04 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,340.25 after trading as high as 1,363.86. Volume was 9.839 billion shares worth 56.470 billion baht. There were 376 decliners and 127 gainers, with 162 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info added 0.71 percent, while Thailand Airport improved 0.88 percent, Asset World plunged 2.53 percent, Banpu stumbled 3.67 percent, Bangkok Bank tumbled 1.94 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 2.09 percent, Bangkok Expressway sank 0.73 percent, B. Grimm tanked 2.94 percent, BTS Group plummeted 4.17 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.92 percent, Energy Absolute shed 0.65 percent, Gulf gained 0.43 percent, PTT Oil & Retail jumped 1.71 percent, PTT surrendered 3.20 percent, PTT Exploration and Production fell 0.39 percent, PTT Global Chemical dropped 0.88 percent, SCG Packaging slumped 1.12 percent, Siam Commercial Bank retreated 1.24 percent, Thai Oil soared 5.88 percent, True Corporation surged 6.36 percent, TTB Bank skidded 1.09 percent and Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank, Krung Thai Card, Siam Concrete and CP All Public were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but quickly faded and then hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow advanced 221.16 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 42,518.28, while the NASDAQ slumped 43.71 points or 0.23 percent to close at 19.044.39 and the S&P 500 rose 6.69 points or 0.11 percent to end at 5,842.91.

The initial strength on Wall Street came following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices rose by slightly less than expected in the month of December.

The smaller than expected monthly increase by producer prices helped ease recent concerns about the outlook for inflation and interest rates, although the faster annual growth kept buying interest somewhat subdued.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of a more closely watched report on consumer price inflation later today.

Oil prices came off five-month highs on Tuesday as investors shifted their focus on the possible impact of Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on imports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed lower by $1.32 or about 1.67 percent at $77.50 a barrel.