Lower Open Called For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping more than 15 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,450-point plateau and it's expected to see continued consolidation on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on mixed corporate and economic news. The European and U.S. markets finished under water and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the food, finance, property and resource stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 3.96 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 1,447.20 after trading between 1,443.21 and 1,456.02. Volume was 11.427 billion shares worth 39.614 billion baht. There were 323 decliners and 161 gainers, with 178 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.75 percent, while Thailand Airport and PTT Exploration and Production both lost 1.20 percent, Asset World shed 0.54 percent, Bangkok Bank tanked 2.33 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical slid 1.77 percent, Bangkok Expressway slipped 1.86 percent, B. Grimm declined 0.90 percent, BTS Group gained 1.22 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods fell 0.40 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 3.14 percent, Gulf rose 0.38 percent, Kasikornbank tumbled 2.02 percent, Krung Thai Bank dropped 0.96 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.55 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slumped 1.91 percent, PTT weakened 1.47 percent, SCG Packaging surrendered 1.96 percent, Siam Commercial Bank stumbled 2.18 percent, Siam Concrete sank 0.97 percent, Thai Oil plummeted 2.40 percent, True Corporation rallied 1.65 percent, TTB Bank skidded 1.12 percent and PTT Global Chemical, Banpu and CP All Public were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday but then bounced higher for most of the day before a late slump saw them finish in the red.

The Dow dropped 91.51 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 42,141.54, while the NASDAQ tumbled 104.82 points or 0.56 percent to close at 18,607.93 and the S&P 500 sank 19.25 points or 0.33 percent to end at 5,813.67.

The choppy trading came as investors reacted to a mixed batch of corporate earnings as Alphabet (GOOGL) and Snap (SNAP) rallied after good results, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Caterpillar (CAT) stumbled after disappointing.

On the U.S. economic front, payroll processor ADP said private sector employment in the U.S. shot up much more than anticipated in October, although a a separate report released by the Commerce Department showed U.S. economic growth unexpectedly slowed in the third quarter.

Oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week and on reports that OPEC may delay its planned output increase. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $1.40 or 2.1 percent at $68.61 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see September numbers for imports, exports, trade balance and current account later today. In August, imports were up 8.5 percent on year and exports rose an annual 11.4 percent for a trade surplus of $2.40 billion. The current account showed a surplus of $1.40 billion.