Thai Stock Market May Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, gathering almost 25 points or 2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,170-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism ahead of earnings season. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the finance, industrial, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index climbed 11.59 points or 1.00 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,171.12 after trading as low as 1,155.47. Volume was 7.076 billion shares worth 35.376 billion baht. There were 249 gainers and 227 decliners, with 176 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 2.16 percent, while Thailand Airport spiked 2.04 percent, Banpu shed 0.47 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical climbed 1.30 percent, Bangkok Expressway retreated 1.67 percent, Beauty Community plummeted 9.38 percent, BTS Group advanced 0.82 percent, CP All Public improved 0.50 percent, Gulf soared 3.28 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail accelerated 3.65 percent, PTT Exploration and Production stumbled 2.49 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.74 percent, SCG Packaging surged 5.26 percent, Siam Concrete gained 0.66 percent, Thai Oil strengthened 3.24 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.69 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.56 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Asset World, B. Grimm, Energy Absolute and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday but trended steadily upward throughout the session to finish with solid gains.

The Dow rallied 300.03 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 40,527.62, while the NASDAQ advanced 95.19 points or 0.55 percent to close at 17,461.32 and the S&P 500 gained 32.08 points or 0.58 percent to end at 5,560.83.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came amid positive developments on the trade front, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick telling CNBC the Trump administration had reached its first trade deal.

Earlier in the day, traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of key earnings and economic news in the coming days.

Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Visa (V), Eli Lilly (LLY), Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) are all due to report earnings this week.

Crude oil futures moved sharply on Tuesday amid ongoing concerns that a weakening U.S. economy and the U.S.-led trade war with partners will hurt energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery plunged $1.63 or 2.6 percent to $60.42 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will release March figures for industrial production, current account, imports, exports and trade balance later today. In February, production was down 3.91 percent on year, while the current account showed a surplus of $5.50 billion. Imports were up 4.1 percent on year and exports jumped 13.9 percent for a trade surplus of $4.40 billion.

The Thai central bank also will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates; the bank is expected to trim its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, to 1.75 percent from 2.00 percent.