Little Movement Seen For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 25 points or 2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,275-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology shares expected to lead the markets higher. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were modestly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished barely higher on Tuesday as gains from the financial and service sectors were offset by weakness from the property, resource and technology shares.

For the day, the index perked 1.01 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 1,277.58 after trading between 1,267.64 and 1,279.35. Volume was 5.542 billion shares worth 32.540 billion baht. There were 234 decliners and 201 gainer, with 216 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.32 percent, while Thailand Airport expanded 1.69 percent, Asset World climbed 1.00 percent, Banpu surged 4.66 percent, Bangkok Bank rallied 1.57 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical gained 0.53 percent, B. Grimm increased 0.71 percent, BTS Group stumbled 2.27 percent, CP All Public added 0.57 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.97 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.53 percent, Krung Thai Bank soared 3.60 percent, Krung Thai Card vaulted 1.80 percent, PTT Oil & Retail sank 0.72 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slumped 0.93 percent, SCG Packaging shed 0.63 percent, Siam Commercial Bank improved 0.77 percent, Siam Concrete tumbled 1.57 percent, Thai Oil tanked 2.72 percent, True Corporation dropped 0.90 percent, TTB Bank jumped 2.07 percent and PTT Global Chemical, Energy Absolute, Gulf, PTT and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday and remained in the green throughout the session, although it was a choppy day.

The Dow climbed 185.13 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 47,474.46, while the NASDAQ jumped 137.75 points or 0.59 percent to close at 23,413.67 and the S&P 500 added 16.74 points or 0.25 percent to end at 6,829.37.

The strength on Wall Street came amid a strong rebound by Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency soared by more than 6 percent after moving sharply lower on Monday. Bitcoin’s rally along with an advance by AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) may have been an indication of renewed risk appetite.

Semiconductor stocks helped lead the markets higher, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping by 1.8 percent. Considerable strength was also visible among computer stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Crude oil prices gave ground on Tuesday as efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict have sent positive signals of a ceasefire sooner than expected. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.55 or 0.93 percent at $58.77 per barrel.