Thai Shares Likely Rangebound On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had tumbled almost 35 points or 2.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,400-point plateau although it may see mild selling pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat as traders await further developments in the Middle East conflict. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets are likely to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index jumped 22.79 points or 1.65 percent to finish at 1,405.75 after trading between 1,393.03 and 1,417.43. Volume was 10.549 billion shares worth 68.215 billion baht. There were 382 gainers and 127 decliners, with 145 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 2.53 percent, while Thailand Airport gained 0.51 percent, Banpu sank 0.84 percent, Bangkok Bank rose 0.30 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical tumbled 2.60 percent, Bangkok Expressway tanked 2.70 percent, B. Grimm improved 0.85 percent, BTS Group slumped 0.96 percent, CP All Public shed 0.53 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods strengthened 1.59 percent, Energy Absolute soared 3.82 percent, Gulf accelerated 2.75 percent, Kasikornbank jumped 1.90 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1.05 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.85 percent, PTT Oil & Retail increased 0.90 percent, PTT added 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production stumbled 2.78 percent, SCG Packaging spiked 2.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.70 percent, Siam Concrete vaulted 2.40 percent, Thai Oil surged 3.23 percent, True Corporation expanded 1.54 percent, TTB Bank advanced 0.92 percent and PTT Global Chemical and Asset World were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but quickly moved higher and spent most of the day in the green before a late fade saw them end mixed and little changed.

The Dow dipped 34.29 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 47,706.51, while the NASDAQ perked 1.16 points or 0.01 percent to close at 22,697.10 and the S&P 500 fell 14.51 points or 0.21 percent to end at 6,781.48.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid substantial volatility by the price of crude oil, with crude for April delivery plummeting almost 12 percent after soaring to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday.

Crude oil prices plunged on Tuesday after Trump said that the ongoing war would end "very soon" but provided no details. The conflict has driven oil prices to sky-high levels in recent days. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery tumbled $9.47 or 9.99 percent at $85.30 per barrel.

Traders also seemed to be expressing some uncertainty about the U.S. war with Iran after President Donald Trump's latest remarks about the conflict.

The president claimed in a subsequent post on Truth Social that Iran would be hit "twenty times harder" if they do anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz.