Additional Support Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,685-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat after the Federal Reserve didn't raise its benchmark lending rate more than expected on Wednesday. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were firmly higher and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index gained 14.29 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 1,685.75 after trading between 1,675.73 and 1,687.98. Volume was 19.765 billion shares worth 63.797 billion baht. There were 984 gainers and 591 decliners, with 483 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info was up 1.54 percent, while Thailand Airport added 0.67 percent, Asset World plunged 2.52 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.95 percent, B. Grimm increased 1.24 percent, CP All Public climbed 1.13 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods improved 1.27 percent, Energy Absolute spiked 1.73 percent, Gulf gathered 1.40 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.34 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.57 percent, Krung Thai Card surged 3.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 0.45 percent, PTT Exploration and Production advanced 0.87 percent, PTT Global Chemical jumped 1.52 percent, SCG Packaging rallied 2.39 percent, Siam Commercial Bank strengthened 1.44 percent, Thai Oil gained 1.30 percent, True Corporation sank 0.79 percent and TTB Bank, Banpu and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday and spent most of the day that way before a late push bumped them into the green.

The Dow rose 6.92 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 23,092.96, while the NASDAQ surged 231.77 points or 2.00 percent to close at 11,816.32 and the S&P 500 jumped 42.61 points or 1.05 percent to end at 4,119.21.

The late-day rally on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates by another quarter point and signaled further rate hikes. The latest interest rate hike comes after the central bank raised rates by 75 basis points in November and by 50 basis points in December.

The Fed also said it anticipates ongoing increases in interest rates will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over time.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector job growth slowed more than expected in January. Also, the Institute for Supply Management said activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted for the third consecutive month in January.

Oil prices fell to a three-week low on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing an increase in crude inventories last week in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March sank $2.46 or 3.1 percent at $76.41 a barrel.