Thai Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost a dozen points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,365-point plateau although the rally may stall on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. unemployment data on Friday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished barely higher on Wednesday as gains from the food, finance and consumer sectors were offset by weakness from the industrials and resource companies.

For the day, the index perked 0.89 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 1,365.49 after trading between 1,355.31 and 1,367.88. Volume was 8.384 billion shares worth 39.035 billion baht. There were 255 gainers and 205 decliners, with 201 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport rose 0.41 percent, while Bangkok Bank skidded 1.06 percent, B. Grimm soared 3.96 percent, BTS Group advanced 1.38 percent, CP All Public fell 0.41 percent, Energy Absolute rallied 2.46 percent, Gulf gained 0.49 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.69 percent, Krung Thai Bank jumped 1.61 percent, PTT Oil & Retail increased 1.32 percent, PTT sank 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slumped 1.08 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.92 percent, SCG Packaging improved 1.21 percent, Siam Commercial Bank lost 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete added 0.44 percent, Thai Oil retreated 1.84 percent, True Corporation spiked 1.96 percent, TTB Bank collected 1.09 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Card, Asset World, Advanced Info, Banpu, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday, hugged the line for most of the day and finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 38.04 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 40,974.97, while the NASDAQ lost 52.00 points or 0.30 percent to close at 17,084.30 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.86 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,520.07.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the substantial volatility seen over the past couple months.

Stocks have shown a substantial rebound or late, but are hampered by lingering concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for demand following reports that OPEC is planning to restore 180,000 barrels per day of voluntary production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.14 or 1.6 percent at 69.20 a barrel, a nine-month low.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to see August data for consumer prices later today. Overall inflation is expected to rise 0.47 percent on year, slowing from 0.83 percent; core CPI is called unchanged at an annual 0.52 percent.