Thai Bourse Has Firm Lead For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has ticked higher in three straight sessions, rising just 7 points or 0.5 percent in that span. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,375-point plateau and it may inch higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on hopeful signs for the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, resource, service and technology sectors, while the financials and industrials were soft.

For the day, the index rose 4.07 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 1,376.57 after trading between 1,372.77 and 1,380.45. Volume was 14.588 billion shares worth 42.896 billion baht.

Among the actives, Airport of Thailand soared 0.37 percent, while Asset World advanced 0.94 percent, B. Grimm climbed 0.95 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical rallied 0.85 percent, BTS Group slumped 1.65 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods skyrocketed 6.80 percent, CP All Public increased 0.83 percent, Energy Absolute surged 4.81 percent, Gulf gained 0.61 percent, IRPC gathered 0.52 percent, Kasikornbank sank 0.75 percent, Krung Thai Card and TTB Bank both lost 0.57 percent, PTT improved 0.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production perked 0.332 percent, PTT Global Chemical added 0.69 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.40 percent, SCP Packaging tanked 2.40 percent, True Corporation fell 0.58 percent and Advanced Info, Bangkok Bank, Bangkok Expressway, Banpu, Krung Thai Bank, PTT Oil & Retail and Thai Oil were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages spent most of Tuesday hugging the unchanged line before a late push bumped them firmly into the green.

The Dow climbed 126.60 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 39,558.11, while the NASDAQ rallied 122.94 points or 0.75 percent to close at 16,511.18 and the S&P 500 added 25.26 points or 0.48 percent to end at 5,246.68.

The higher close on Wall Street came as treasury yields moved to the downside after an early advance, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note falling to its lowest closing level in over a month.

Treasury yields initially moved higher following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of April.

However, while the report initially generated renewed uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates, some economists pointed to the downward revisions to the March data as a positive sign.

Oil futures settled lower Tuesday as data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices raised concerns that Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for a longer period. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June sank $1.10 or about 1.4 percent at $78.02 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release Q1 data for gross domestic product later today; in the previous three months, GDP sank 0.6 percent on quarter and rose 1.7 percent on year.