Thai Stock Market May Hand Back Wednesday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the three-day slide in which it had slumped almost 50 points or 3.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,290-point plateau although it may head south again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on lingering concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead. The SET finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the food, finance, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index rallied 16.54 points or 1.30 percent to finish at 1,290.55 after trading between 1,282.05 and 1,293.94. Volume was 9.678 billion shares worth 40.061 billion baht. There were 338 gainers and 163 decliners, with 156 stocks finishing unchanged. Among the actives, Advanced Info rose 0.42 percent, while Thailand Airport was up 0.90 percent, Banpu added 0.45 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.15 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical soared 2.86 percent, Bangkok Expressway gathered 0.68 percent, B. Grimm fell 0.43 percent, BTS Group plummeted 5.53 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods accelerated 3.10 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 10.24 percent, Gulf gained 2.14 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.78 percent, Krung Thai Bank spiked 3.51 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 1.94 percent, PTT Oil & Retail rallied 1.36 percent, PTT increased 0.79 percent, PTT Exploration and Production lost 0.68 percent, PTT Global Chemical stumbled 1.24 percent, SCG Packaging dropped 0.97 percent, Siam Commercial Bank strengthened 1.49 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.50 percent, Thai Oil stumbled 1.55 percent, True Corporation advanced 2.59 percent, TTB Bank jumped 1.84 percent and Asset World and CP All Public were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened solidly higher on Wednesday but faded as the day progressed, finally ending with significant losses.

The Dow stumbled 234.21 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 38,763.45, while the NASDAQ sank 171.05 points or 1.05 percent to end at 16,195.81 and the S&P 500 dropped 40.53 points or 0.77 percent to close at 5,199.50.

Stocks initially continued to benefit from bargain hunting, as traders picked up stocks at relatively reduced levels following the recent sell-off.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy continued to hang over the markets.

Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday as data showed a much larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $2.03 or 2.75 percent at $75.23 a barrel.