Thai Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, shedding more than 15 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,315-point plateau and it's likely to see little movement on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key economic data later in the day. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the food, finance, property and service sectors were mitigated by support from the industrial and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 2.47 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 1,316.10 after trading between 1,314.35 and 1,325.52. Volume was 13.801 billion shares worth 45.342 billion baht. There were 271 gainers and 216 decliners, with 173 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 0.96 percent, while Thailand Airport tumbled 0.82 percent, Banpu advanced 0.83 percent, Bangkok Bank and Krung Thai Card both skidded 1.11 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical jumped 1.87 percent, Bangkok Expressway added 0.64 percent, BTS Group spiked 1.69 percent, CP All Public fell 0.87 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.34 percent, Energy Absolute surged 5.50 percent, Gulf climbed 1.25 percent, Kasikornbank stumbled 1.57 percent, Krung Thai Bank slumped 1.13 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 0.59 percent, PTT sank 0.78 percent, PTT Exploration and Production declined 1.32 percent, PTT Global Chemical improved 0.78 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.96 percent, Thai Oil was down 1.00 percent, True Corporation weakened 1.20 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.60 percent and SCG Packaging, Siam Concrete, Asset World and B. Grimm were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday but trended to the upside as the day progressed and ended mixed.

The Dow slumped 120.62 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 38,747.42, while the NASDAQ rallied 151.02 points or 0.88 percent to close at a record 17,343.55 and the S&P 500 added 14.53 points or 0.27 percent to end at 5,375.32 - also a record.

The advance by the tech-heavy NASDAQ was partly due to a surge by shares of Apple (AAPL), with the tech giant surging 7.3 percent to a record after unveiling new AI features that may drive users to upgrade their devices.

But traders are looking ahead to two potentially major market moving economic events later today - the Labor Department's inflation report for May, and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement as well as officials' latest projections for the economy and interest rates.

Oil futures settled slightly higher Tuesday as caution reigned ahead of inventory data and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.16 at $77.90 a barrel.