Rally May Stall For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 15 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,310-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with heavy damage expected among the technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses are expected to open under pressure.

The SET finished barely higher on Tuesday as gains from the financials and technology stocks were offset by weakness from the food, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index perked 0.88 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 1,308.09 after trading between 1,306.22 and 1,315.78. Volume was 8.111 billion shares worth 45.553 billon baht. There were 259 gainers and 258 decliners, with 131 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 1.32 percent, while Thailand Airport gave up 1.30 percent, Asset World tanked 2.13 percent, Banpu sank 0.80 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical weakened 1.89 percent, Bangkok Expressway was down 1.90 percent, B. Grimm surrendered 2.70 percent, BTS Group surged 3.83 percent, CP All Public declined 0.88 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.67 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 4.39 percent, Gulf spiked 2.12 percent, Kasikornbank soared 3.13 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.56 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.63 percent, PTT Oil & Retail fell 0.64 percent, PTT Exploration and Production stumbled 3.40 percent, PTT Global Chemical dropped 0.92 percent, SCG Packaging tumbled 1.74 percent, Siam Concrete plunged 3.54 percent, Thai Oil skidded 1.00 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.70 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.59 percent and Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly negative as the major averages opened slightly higher but quickly faded and finally finished mixed.

The Dow jumped 203.40 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 40,743.33, while the NASDAQ plummeted 222.79 points or 1.28 percent to close at 17,147.42 and the S&P 500 sank 27.10 points or 0.50 percent to end at 5,436.44.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement could have a significant impact on the outlook for the central bank's next decision in September.

The steep drop by the NASDAQ came as tech stocks came under pressure as the day progressed, weighed by the likes of Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Among tech stocks, semiconductor stocks saw some of the worst performances, resulting in a 3.9 percent nosedive by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The index slumped to its lowest closing level in well over two months.

Oil prices fell Tuesday amid continued concerns about the outlook for demand, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement and weekly inventory data later today. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for September ended down $1.08 or 1.42 percent at $74.73 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide June results for industrial production, imports, exports, trade balance and current account later today. In May, production fell 1.54 percent on year, while imports slipped 2.3 percent on year, exports climbed an annual 7.8 percent, the trade surplus was $2.80 billion and the current account showed a surplus of $0.700 billion.