Thai Bourse May Reclaim 1.400-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 35 points or 2.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,385-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology stocks expected to lead the way higher. The European markets were flat and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index jumped 21.84 points or 1.60 percent to finish at 1,386.91 after trading between 1,366.71 and 1,386.93. Volume was 10.908 billion shares worth 43.703 billion baht. There were 329 gainers and 170 decliners, with 175 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info surged 3.65 percent, while Thailand Airport advanced 2.58 percent, Asset World climbed 2.34 percent, Banpu rose 1.75 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.67 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical soared 3.40 percent, Bangkok Expressway improved 1.46 percent, B. Grimm gained 4.37 percent, BTS Group sank 0.89 percent, CP All Public jumped 3.74 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.44 percent, Energy Absolute tanked 2.01 percent, Gulf gathered 0.42 percent, Kasikornbank strengthened 1.31 percent, Krung Thai Bank rallied 2.45 percent, Krung Thai Card soared 3.19 percent, PTT Oil & Retail advanced 2.29 percent, PTT perked 0.81 percent, PTT Exploration and Production was up 0.43 percent, PTT Global Chemical spiked 2.21 percent, SCG Packaging accelerated 2.12 percent, Siam Commercial Bank improved 0.86 percent, Siam Concrete increased 2.45 percent, Thai Oil plummeted 6.42 percent, True Corporation skyrocketed 5.66 percent and TTB Bank jumped 1.67 percent.

The lead from Wall Street positive as the major averages opened flat on Monday but all eventually tracked higher and ended in the green.

The Dow added 66.69 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 42,906.95, while the NASDAQ spiked 192.29 points or 0.98 percent to close at 19,764.88 and the S&P 600 gained 43.22 points or 0.73 percent to end at 5,974.07.

The advance by the tech-heavy NASDAQ came amid a rally by semiconductor stocks, while significant strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks.

Overall trading activity was subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves amid what is likely to be a quiet week due to the Christmas Day holiday on Wednesday.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods slumped more than expected in November. Also, the Conference Board noted an unexpected deterioration by consumer confidence in December.

Oil futures settled lower Monday amid concerns about possible excess supply in the market, while a stronger dollar also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February dipped $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $69.20 a barrel.