Win Streak May End For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, improving more than 60 points or 4.3 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,410-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the release of U.S. employment data later today. The European and U.S. markets finished mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index added 9.55 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 1,410.44 after trading between 1,402.29 and 1,414.95. Volume was 9.312 billion shares worth 72.261 billion baht. There were 361 gainers and 116 decliners, with 196 stocks finishing unchanged,

Among the actives, Advanced Info surged 4.55 percent, while Thailand Airport slumped 1.29 percent, Asset World improved 0.83 percent, Banpu expanded 0.92 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.93 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.48 percent, Bangkok Expressway strengthened 1.85 percent, B. Grimm spiked 2.22 percent, BTS Group rallied 4.24 percent, CP All Public vaulted 2.63 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 7.69 percent, Gulf accelerated 2.82 percent, Kasikornbank rose 0.26 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tanked 2.11 percent, PTT perked 0.71 percent, PTT Exploration and Production was up 0.78 percent, PTT Global Chemical advanced 0.98 percent, SCG Packaging gained 0.49 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.36 percent, Siam Concrete gathered 0.46 percent, Thai Oil soared 4.15 percent, True Corporation increased 0.78 percent and TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Bank and Krung Thai Card were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday, hugged both sides of the line all day and then finished little changed.

The Dow rose 52.27 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 50,188.14, while the NASDAQ slumped 136.20 points or 0.59 percent to end at 23,102.47 and the S&P 500 sank 23.01 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,941.81.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The report, which was delayed due to the brief government shutdown last week, is expected to show employment climbed by 70,000 jobs in January after rising by 50,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a Commerce Department report showing retail sales in the U.S. were unexpectedly flat in December. A separate report from the Labor Department showed import prices in the U.S. crept up in line with estimates in December.

Crude oil prices ticked lower on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. jobs data. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was down $0.12 of 0.19 percent to $64.24 per barrel.