Soft Start Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Wednesday's holiday for Visakha Day, the Thai stock market had moved lower in two straight sessions, slipping almost a dozen points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,370-point plateau although it's expected to in the red again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on a dimming outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the industrial, property, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index sank 7.87 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 1,370.83 after trading between 1,367.14 and 1,376.94. Volume was 13.118 billion shares worth 38.402 billion baht. There were 287 decliners and 198 gainers, with 175 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.96 percent, while Thailand Airport rose 0.38 percent, Asset World plummeted 3.96 percent, Banpu tumbled 1.72 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.36 percent, Bangkok Expressway slid 0.63 percent, B. Grimm tanked 3.77 percent, BTS Group gained 0.83 percent, CP All Public rallied 1.28 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.90 percent, Energy Absolute cratered 5.14 percent, Gulf stumbled 1.79 percent, PTT Oil & Retail shed 0.55 percent, PTT lost 0.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production surrendered 2.21 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 2.63 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.75 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete retreated 1.21 percent, Thai Oil slumped 3.35 percent, True Corporation declined 1.17 percent, TTB Bank added 0.57 percent and Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank, Krung Thai Card and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages spent the first half of Wednesday hugging the line before stumbling into the red late in the day.

The Dow tumbled 201.95 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 39,671.04, while the NASDAQ dropped 31.08 points or 0.18 percent to close at 16,801.54 and the S&P 500 fell 14.40 points or 0.27 percent to end at 5,307.01.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came as the Fed minutes suggested officials expect to maintain interest rates at current levels longer than previously thought.

The minutes of the April 30-May 1 meeting said participants highlighted disappointing readings on inflation over the first quarter and indicators pointing to strong economic momentum.

While officials also discussed reducing policy restraint in the event of an unexpected weakening in labor market conditions, participants also noted a willingness to raise rates further of necessary should risks to inflation materialize.

Oil prices fell to a two-month low on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected rebound in crude oil inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $77.57 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release April numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In March, imports were up 5.6 percent on year and exports dropped 10.9 percent for a trade deficit of $1.160 billion.