Thai Stock Market May Test Resistance At 1,400 Points

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for Constitution Day, the Thai stock market had bounced higher again - one session after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had gained almost 10 points or 0.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,380-point plateau and it's expected to return to the upside on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on optimism for the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly higher on Friday as gains from the resource and technology sectors were offset by weakness from the food, finance and service stocks.

For the day, the index rose 2.26 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 1,380.99 after trading between 1,376.29 and 1m389.40. Volume was 11.906 billion shares worth 34.767 billion baht. There were 269 decliners and 193 gainers, with 189 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Asset World and Charoen Pokphand Foods both shed 0.53 percent, while Banpu plummeted 3.57 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.34 percent, Bangkok Expressway rallied 1.25 percent, BTS Group jumped 1.39 percent, CP All Public declined 0.94 percent, Energy Absolute added 0.57 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.39 percent, Krung Thai Bank skidded 1.09 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail dropped 0.99 percent, PTT perked 0.70 percent, PTT Exploration and Production climbed1.07 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.65 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dipped 0.25 percent, Siam Concrete declined 1.02 percent, Thai Oil advanced 0.99 percent, True Corporation plunged 2.83 percent, TTB Bank gained 0.65 percent and PTT Global Chemical, Advanced Info, B. Grimm, Gulf, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is modestly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all turned higher to finish with mild gains.

The Dow jumped 157.06 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 36,404.93, while the NASDAQ added 28.51 points or 0.20 percent to close at 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.39 percent to end at 4,622.44.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Optimism the Fed could pivot to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024 has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, although last Friday's strong than expected jobs data has led to speculation the Fed could wait until May to begin lowering rates.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.