Soft Start Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 30 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,690-point plateau although it's tipped to open in the red on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index accelerated 17.26 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 1,691.12 after trading between 1,684.90 and 1,693.42. Volume was 16.845 billion shares worth 78.520 billion baht. There were 1,031 gainers and 586 decliners, with 453 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 1.00 percent, while Thailand Airport fell 0.33 percent, Asset World retreated 1.56 percent, Banpu strengthened 1.63 percent, Bangkok Bank rose 0.32 percent, Bangkok Expressway declined 1.54 percent, B. Grimm added 0.60 percent, BTS Group gained 0.58 percent, CP All Public surged 3.91 percent, Energy Absolute tumbled 1.90 percent, Kasikornbank advanced 0.98 percent, Krung Thai Card increased 0.85 percent, PTT Oil & Retail gathered 0.43 percent, PTT jumped 1.54 percent, PTT Exploration and Production perked 0.60 percent, PTT Global Chemical rallied 2.70 percent, SCG Packaging lost 0.42 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.88 percent, Siam Concrete was up 0.57 percent, Thai Oil climbed 0.93 percent, Tid Lor skyrocketed 10.43 percent, True Corporation sank 0.41 percent and TTB Bank, Bangkok Dusit Medical, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Gulf and Krung Thai Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded as the day progressed, eventually ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 112.96 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 33,517.65, while the NASDAQ gained 66.36 points or 0.63 percent to close at 10,635.65 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.99 points or 0.08 percent to end at 3,892.09.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was solid after bond yields dropped amid bets the Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of its interest rate hikes in the coming months.

Stocks pared gains after comments from Fed officials that the central bank might raise rates to somewhere above 5 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid hopes of increased demand - while a weak dollar also helped to support oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February rose $0.86 or 1.2 percent at $74.63 a barrel.