No Help Yet For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has ticked lower in three straight sessions, sinking more than 15 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,260-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were soft and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The SET finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the food, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors. For the day, the index dropped 12.38 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 1,261.39 after trading between 1,258.47 and 1,279.54. Volume was 5.666 billion shares worth 37.422 billion baht. There were 321 decliners and 144 gainers, with 195 stocks finishing unchanged. Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.33 percent, while Asset World slumped 0.99 percent, Banpu improved 0.81 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.60 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical picked up 0.53 percent, B. Grimm stumbled 2.14 percent, BTS Group jumped 0.80 percent, CP All Public increased 0.58 percent, Energy Absolute added 0.77 percent, Gulf declined 0.62 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.26 percent, Krung Thai Bank dropped 0.87 percent, PTT Oil & Retail sank 0.76 percent, PTT skidded 0.79 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.47 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.48 percent, SCG Packaging cratered 2.60 percent, Siam Commercial Bank contracted 1.50 percent, Siam Concrete tumbled 1.90 percent, Thai Oil plunged 1.40 percent, True Corporation rallied 2.75 percent, TTB Bank lost 0.51 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Card, Thailand Airport and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the session well under water.

The Dow dropped 215.67 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 47,739.32, while the NASDAQ sank 32.22 points or 0.14 percent to close at 23,545.90 and the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points or 0.35 percent to end at 6,846.51.

The modest pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking following recent strength in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and S&P 500 reach their best closing levels in a month last Friday.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

With the Fed widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts next year.

Crude oil prices slumped on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, which has largely been priced in. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $1.28 or 2.13 percent at $58.80 per barrel.