Thai Stock Market May Find Support On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, slumping more than 40 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,560-point plateau although it may halt its slide on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with support expected from the financials, technology stocks and oil companies. The European markets were solidly higher and the U.S. bourses were off on holiday and the Asian markets figure to open in the green.

The SET finished barely lower on Monday following losses from the financials and a mixed picture from the energy producers.

For the day, the index eased 0.18 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 1,559.21 after trading between 1,549.98 and 1,563.97. Volume was 17.763 billion shares worth 56.962 billion baht. There were 996 decliners and 674 gainers, with 497 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info was up 0.50 percent, while Thailand Airport rallied 2.21 percent, Banpu sank 0.79 percent, Bangkok Bank skidded 1.10 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.83 percent, Bangkok Expressway gained 0.57 percent, BTS Group slumped 0.59 percent, CP All Public added 0.42 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.94 percent, Energy Absolute climbed 1.21 percent, Gulf improved 0.54 percent, IRPC gathered 0.65 percent, Kasikornbank dropped 1.00 percent, Krung Thai Bank stumbled 1.28 percent, PTT shed 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tumbled 2.46 percent, PTT Global Chemical global 0.57 percent, Siam Commercial Bank surrendered 2.83 percent, TTB Bank lost 0.79 percent and Thai Oil, Krung Thai Card, PTT Oil & Retail and True Corporation were unchanged.

Wall Street and many of the commodity markets were off on Monday for the Juneteenth holiday, but the European markets finished with solid gains.

Germany's DAX jumped 139.34 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 13,265..60, London's FTSE spiked 105.56 points or 1.50 percent to close at 7,121.81 and the CAC 40 in France gained 37.44 points or 0.64 percent to end at 5,920.09.

Bargain hunting was a big part of that following the weakness from last week that were fueled by worries about a recession and bets of bigger interest-rate hikes from major central banks.

The rally was also fueled by European Central bank President Christine Lagarde, who reaffirmed on Monday that the ECB will hike interest rates by 25 basis points twice this summer to fight inflation. Investors had worried that sharper rate hikes might be on the docket, sparking recession concerns.

Investors also await a congressional appearance by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell this week that could highlight the U.S. central bank's resolve to guide inflation back to the Fed's 2 percent target.