The Thai stock market on Monday halted the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 35 points or 2.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,410-point plateau and it may see continued selling pressure on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian is negative as surging coronavirus cases threaten the imposition of further lockdown measures. The European and U.S. markets were firmly in the red and the Asian markets are tipped to follow suit.
The SET finished sharply lower on Monday with profit taking across the board - especially among the financial shares and energy producers.
For the day, the index tumbled 29.47 points or 2.05 percent to finish at 1,408.31 after trading between 1,408.02 and 1,435.04. Volume was 28.786 billion shares worth 120.486 billion baht. There were 1,314 decliners and 489 gainers, with 334 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 2.23 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 3.40 percent, Asset World tumbled 3.24 percent, Bangkok Bank tanked 3.67 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical plunged 4.44 percent, Bangkok Expressway skidded 1.61 percent, BTS Group retreated 1.92 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods sank 1.71 percent, Gulf surrendered 3.45 percent, IRPC declined 3.55 percent, Kasikornbank fell 3.08 percent, Krung Thai Bank plummeted 4.46 percent, PTT weakened 4.19 percent. PTT Exploration and Production slid 3.73 percent, PTT Global Chemical dropped 2.97 percent, Siam Commercial Bank was down 4.20 percent, Siam Concrete dipped 0.80 percent and TMB Bank cratered 7.08 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as stocks spent most of Monday in the red and finished that way, cutting into the gains from last week.
The Dow dropped 271.07 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 29,639.30, while the NASDAQ eased 7.11 points or 0.06 percent to end at 12,198.74 and the S&P 500 fell 16.67 points or 0.46 percent to close at 3,621.66.
The weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking following strength in the markets over the past few sessions - while surging coronavirus cases add to the negative sentiment.
Reports that the Trump administration may add China's top chipmaker SMIC and national offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies is also weighing on the markets.
Traders largely shrugged off the latest upbeat news regarding a potential coronavirus vaccine. Moderna (MRNA) announced that a phase 3 trial of its vaccine candidate indicates an efficacy of 94.1 percent.
Crude oil futures pared early losses and ended slightly lower Monday as traders looked ahead to the meeting of OPEC and its allies, which will consider extending large output cuts that are currently in place. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.19 or 0.4 percent at $45.34 a barrel.
Closer to home, Thailand will see November results for its business confidence index later today; in October, the index score was 45.4.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
