Soft Start Called For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 15 points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,600-point plateau although it may slip back under that level again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement with tech concerns pitted against easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead, if little changed.

The SET finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index added 5.91 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 1,601.92 after trading between 1,599.58 and 1,611.06. Volume was 10.284 billion shares worth 71.659 billion baht. There were 342 gainers and 128 decliners, with 184 stocks finishing unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but spent most of the day under water and finished slightly in the red.

The Dow dropped 113.52 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 53,463.88, while the NASDAQ dipped 21.10 points or 0.08 percent to close at 26,130.20 and the S&P 500 eased 1.58 points or 0.02 percent to end at 7,675.70.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of AI giant Nvidia's (NVDA) second quarter results after the close of Wednesday trading. Nvidia then handily beat the street, although some analysts were looking for more.

Traders were also looking ahead to Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh's speech at the Jackson Hole economic symposium on Friday; traders shrugged off the Commerce Department's report showing consumer prices in the U.S. increased slightly more than expected in July.

Crude oil prices inched lower on Wednesday on reports of Iran and Oman nearing an agreement to establish a temporary transit corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.22 or 0.27 percent at $82.14 per barrel.