The Thai stock market has climbed higher in back-to-back trading days, surging more than 80 points or 6.3 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,340-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.
The global forecast is cloudy, with continued optimism for a Covid-19 vaccination likely countered by profit taking following recent rallies. The European were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The SET finished with huge gains on Tuesday with support across the board - especially from the financial shares and energy producers.
For the day, the index skyrocketed 55.36 points or 4.31 percent to finish at 1,341.24 after trading between 1,313.04 and 1,346.72. Volume was 33.247 billion shares worth 166.674 billion baht. There were 1,097 gainers and 814 decliners, with 268 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Advanced Info added 1.40 percent, while Thailand Airport surged 18.34 percent, Asset World skyrocketed 20.00 percent, Bangkok Bank spiked 8.49 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical soared 12.43 percent, Bangkok Expressway advanced 3.95 percent, BTS Group gathered 6.19 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rose 1.82 percent, Kasikornbank rallied 17.08 percent, Krung Thai Bank accelerated 10.75 percent, PTT perked 10.07 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 8.04 percent, PTT Global Chemical jumped 6.49 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 9.51 percent, Siam Concrete increased 1.66 percent, TMB Bank soared 10.75 percent and Gulf was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street in inconsistent as the Dow opened higher on Tuesday and remained in the green - but the NASDAQ and S&P 500 spent most of the day in negative territory.
The Dow jumped 262.95 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 29,420, while the NASDAQ plunged 159.93 points or 1.37 percent to end at 11,553.86 and the S&P 500 fell 4.97 points or 0.14 percent to close at 3,545.53.
The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders continued to cycle out of tech stocks that benefited from the coronavirus pandemic, such as Zoom (ZM) and Amazon (AMZN).
The shift comes as upbeat news about a vaccine being developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) has generated optimism that business may return to normal next year. However, there could be more pain between now and then, as coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to spike and have now topped 10 million.
Traders are also keeping an eye on developments in Washington as President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede to President-elect Joe Biden.
Crude oil futures ended sharply higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session as optimism over a potential coronavirus vaccine continued to outweigh worries about the energy demand outlook. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $1.07 or 2.7 percent at $41.36 a barrel.
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