Thai Stock Market Likely To Remain Rangebound On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 30 points or 2.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,175-point plateau and it's expected to turn lower again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index gained 5.97 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 1,176.17 after trading between 1,165.99 and 1,181.31. Volume was 8.918 billion share worth 39.062 billion baht. There were

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 1.54 percent, while Thailand Airport improved 0.64 percent, Asset World tanked 2.13 percent, Bangkok Bank strengthened 1.38 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical rose 0.42 percent, Bangkok Expressway slumped 2.70 percent, B. Grimm tumbled 1.74 percent, BTS Group sank 0.91 percent, CP All Public soared 2.54 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.83 percent, Energy Absolute stumbled 2.46 percent, Gulf jumped 2.06 percent, Kasikornbank spiked 2.30 percent, Krung Thai Bank advanced 0.86 percent, PTT Oil & Retail dropped 0.95 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.46 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 3.21 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 4.29 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.81 percent, Siam Concrete surrendered 2.36 percent, TTB Bank added 0.52 percent and Krung Thai Card, True Corporation, Banpu, PTT and Thai Oil were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 260.32 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 41,581.31, while the NASDAQ plunged 304.55 points or 1.71 percent to close at 17,504.12 and the S&P 500 sank 60.46 points or 1.07 percent to end at 5,614.66.

Concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's trade policies continued to weigh along with worries about the economic outlook despite the release of some upbeat economic data.

The Federal Reserve said industrial production in the U.S. increased much more than expected in January. Also, the Commerce Department said new residential construction rebounded more than anticipated in February.

Traders were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement later today. While the Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement as well as officials' latest projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled lower on Tuesday as concerns about supply disruptions eased, while worries about global growth due to the impact of U.S. trade tariffs weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.68 or 1 percent at $66.90 a barrel.