Thai Stock Market May Reverse Monday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 15 points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,320-point plateau although it's likely to rebound again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat with a touch of upside ahead of the FOMC statement on Wednesday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to inch higher.

The SET finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the food, consumption, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index slumped 14.17 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 1,318.57 after trading between 1,313.26 and 1,329.81. Volume was 8.002 billion shares 38.377 billion baht. There were 448 decliners and 98 gainers, with 115 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.95 percent, while Thailand Airport slid 1.62 percent, Asset World tanked 2.21 percent, Banpu plummeted 6.02 percent, Bangkok Bank rallied 1.50 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical was down 1.83 percent, Bangkok Expressway jumped 1.95 percent, B. Grimm tumbled 2.07 percent, BTS Group crashed 3.27 percent, CP All Public gave up 0.86 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods stumbled 1.32 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 6.98 percent, Gulf fell 0.62 percent, Kasikornbank sank 0.78 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.10 percent, PTT Oil & Retail declined 1.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production dipped 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.53 percent, SCG Packaging lost 0.74 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.48 percent, Siam Concrete weakened 1.28 percent, Thai Oil surrendered 2.90 percent, True Corporation slumped 1.18 percent and TTB Bank, Krung Thai Bank and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened lower on Monday before gradually climbing up into positive territory.

The Dow gained 69.05 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 38,868.04, while the NASDAQ added 51.90 points or 0.35 percent to close at 17,192.53 and the S&P 500 rose 13/80 points or 0.26 percent to end at 5,360.79.

Traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key events later this week, including the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting.

The Fed is due to announce its latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday, when the central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Since the decision is largely seen as a foregone conclusion, traders are likely to pay closer attention to Fed officials' latest projections for the economy and rates.

Ahead of the Fed announcement, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its report on consumer price inflation in the month of May.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid optimism about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.21 or about 2.9 percent at $77.74 a barrel.