Rally May Stall For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, gathering more than a dozen points or 1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,375-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, matching the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the consumer, industrial, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index picked up 6.45 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 1,376.37 after trading between 1,373.98 and 1,384.74. Volume was 11.744 billion shares worth 41.743 billion baht. There were 290 gainers and 186 decliners, with 182 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info climbed 0.97 percent, while Asset World gained 0.46 percent, Banpu jumped 1.83 percent, Bangkok Bank strengthened 1.48 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical accelerated 0.86 percent, Bangkok Expressway slumped 1.19 percent, B. Grimm advanced 0.94 percent, BTS Group tanked 2.38 percent, Energy Absolute rallied 0.81 percent, Gulf rose 0.61 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.76 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.60 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.58 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 1.07 percent, PTT Exploration and Production was up 0.66 percent, PTT Global Chemical improved 0.70 percent, SCG Packaging increased 0.78 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.80 percent, Thai Oil lost 0.46 percent, True Corporation surged 4.29 percent and TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Siam Commercial Bank, PTT, CP All Public and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but faded to finish mixed and barely changed.

The Dow added 31.99 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 38,884.26, while the NASDAQ slipped 16.69 points or 0.10 percent to close at 16,332.56 and the S&P 500 rose 6.96 points or 0.13 percent to end at 5,187.70.

The modest strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Relatively dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell combined with weaker-than-expected job growth in April have largely eliminated short-lived concerns the Fed might actually consider raising rates.

However, buying interest waned in afternoon trading after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to remain at current levels for an "extended period."

Oil futures settled slightly lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for global oil demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.10 at $78.38 a barrel.