Thai Stock Market May Extend 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 fallen almost 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,680-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index fell 6.25 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 1,682.11 after trading between 1,680.22 and 1,687.78. Volume was 17.131 billion shares worth 47.903 billion baht. There were 1,041 decliners and 497 gainers, with 477 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.76 percent, while Banpu tumbled 1.74 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.31 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 0.83 percent, B. Grimm surrendered 1.85 percent, CP All Public skidded 1.11 percent, Energy Absolute and Krung Thai Card both dropped 0.84 percent, Gulf slid 0.46 percent, Krung Thai Bank slumped 1.14 percent, PTT sank 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production retreated 1.20 percent, Siam Commercial Bank weakened 0.95 percent, Siam Concrete lost 0.59 percent, True Corporation dipped 0.41 percent and TTB Bank, Kasikornbank, Thailand Airport, PTT Oil & Retail, Thai Oil, PTT Global Chemical and SCG Packaging were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Monday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow shed 34.99 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 33,891.02, while the NASDAQ tumbled 119.50 points or 1.00 percent to end at 11,887.45 and the S&P 500 sank 25.40 points or 0.61 percent to close at 4,111.08.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street following last week's stronger than expected jobs data, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to speed up its pace for interest rate hikes.

Computer hardware stocks were under pressure, as were steel, housing, semiconductor and gold shares.

Oil prices climbed higher Monday on optimism energy demand from China will see a big jump after Saudi Arabia unexpectedly increased the prices of oil to be shipped to Asia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.72 or 1 percent at $74.11 a barrel.