Steady Start Eyed For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping more than a dozen points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,450-point plateau although it may find traction on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity, although technology shares may provide a slight boost. 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 following losses from the industrial, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index dipped 1.87 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 1,451.16 after trading between 1,449.24 and 1,461.93. Volume was 9.850 billion shares worth 40.897 billion baht. There were 248 decliners and 226 gainers, with 189 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 1.85 percent, while Thailand Airport advanced 0.81 percent, Asset World climbed 1.10 percent, Banpu retreated 1.60 percent, Bangkok Expressway increased 0.63 percent, CP All Public dropped 0.78 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods improved 1.21 percent, Energy Absolute surged 3.92 percent, Gulf rose 0.38 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.34 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.52 percent, PTT Oil & Retail declined 1.26 percent, PTT sank 0.73 percent, PTT Exploration and Production added 0.40 percent, SCG Packaging plunged 2.86 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.43 percent, Siam Concrete rallied 1.47 percent, Thai Oil gained 0.60 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.68 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.56 percent and Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Bank, PTT Global Chemical, B. Grimm, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow slumped 154.52 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 42,233.05, while the NASDAQ jumped 145.56 points or 0.78 percent to close at a record 18,712.75 and the S&P 500 rose 9.40 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,832.92.

The climb by the NASDAQ came ahead of the release of earnings news from big-name tech companies, including with Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL).

Semiconductor stocks showed a particularly strong move to the upside, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.3 percent.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board noted a substantial improvement by U.S. consumer confidence in October. Also, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. fell to 7.44 million in September from a downwardly revised 7.86 million in August.

Oil futures settled lower again on Tuesday amid concerns crude supplies will far exceed near term demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $0.17 or about 0.25 percent at $67.21 a barrel.