Thai Bourse May Test Resistance At 1,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market bounced higher again on Wednesday, one day after ending the four-day winning streak in which it had improved almost 20 points or 1.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,485-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on optimism ahead of key U.S. economic data later this week. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished sharply higher on Wednesday with gains across the board, particularly among the food, consumer, industry, property and technology sectors.

For the day, the index jumped 19.98 points or 1.36 percent to finish at 1,485.01 after trading between 1,461.12 and 1,488.59. Volume was 13.464 billion shares worth 77.221 billion baht. There were 427 gainers and 100 decliners, with 141 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info accelerated 2.50 percent, Thailand Airport perked 0.39 percent, Asset World rallied 2.69 percent, Banpu jumped 3.15 percent, Bangkok Bank tanked 2.23 percent, Bangkok Expressway was up 1.23 percent, B. Grimm strengthened 3.43 percent, BTS Group increased 1.34 percent, CP All Public gathered 2.33 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.99 percent, Energy Absolute climbed 2.98 percent, Gulf and PTT Exploration and Production both rose 0.38 percent, Kasikornbank tumbled 1.95 percent, Krung Thai Bank and Siam Commercial Bank both collected 0.46 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.51 percent, PTT Oil & Retail added 0.60 percent, PTT Global Chemical spiked 2.88 percent, SCG Packaging soared 4.76 percent, Siam Concrete improved 0.93 percent, Thai Oil gained 0.52 percent, True Corporation surged 4.46 percent and TTB Bank, PTT and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but quickly headed higher and finished well in positive territory.

The Dow rallied 337.28 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 43,077.70, while the NASDAQ gained 51.49 points or 0.28 percent to close at 18,367.08 and the S&P 500 added 27.21 points or 0.47 percent to end at 5,842.47.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came on continued optimism about the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of the release of several key reports later this week including weekly jobless claims, retail sales and industrial production.

In economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing a continued decrease by prices for U.S. imports and exports in September.

Oil futures settled lower on Wednesday, weighed down by concerns about weak demand from China and easing geopolitical worries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended down $0.19 at $70.39 a barrel.