Thai Stock Market May Open In The Red On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing more than 30 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,500-point plateau although it may open to the downside on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower as sinking oil prices may be offset by interest rate concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index gained 23.24 points or 1.58 percent to finish at 1,496.31 after trading between 1,484.71 and 1,498.09. Volume was 10.881 billion shares worth 70.817 billion baht. There were 349 gainers and 106 decliners, with 194 stocks finishing unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened under water on Tuesday and stayed that way, although stocks came well off of their daily lows later in the day.

The Dow shed 157.86 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 52,231.89, while the NASDAQ sank 187.26 points or 0.74 percent to end at 25,065.88 and the S&P 500 lost 29.01 points or 0.38 percent to close at 7,520.93.

The weakness on Wall Street followed the release of closely watched Labor Department data showing that consumer prices increased 0.4 percent in October, more than the 0.3 percent that was expected.

The hotter-than-expected inflation data led to renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next month. CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently suggests an 85.9 percent chance the Fed will raise rates by a quarter-point at its December meeting.

Stocks came off their daily lows later in the day thanks to continued downward pressure on crude oil prices - which tumbled again as concerns of U.S.-Iran re-escalation faded after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to maintain a status quo in the U.S.-Iran crisis. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.97 or 1.12 percent at $85.88 per barrel.