Higher Open Seen For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the five-day winning streak in which it had picked up more than 40 points or 3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,355-point plateau although it may see mild upside on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key inflation data later in the day. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property and technology sectors.

For the day, the index fell 8.31 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 1,357.41 after trading between 1,355/99 and 1,366.76. Volume was 7.816 billion shares worth 35.396 billion baht. There were 336 decliners and 155 gainers, with 182 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 1.60 percent, while Thailand Airport and CP All Public both slumped 0.83 percent, Asset World tanked 2.23 percent, Banpu advanced 0.93 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.35 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical weakened 0.89 percent, B. Grimm declined 1.44 percent, BTS Group was down 1.38 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.20 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 6.94 percent, Gulf lost 0.49 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.54 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.16 percent, PTT improved 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production sank 0.70 percent, PTT Global Chemical dropped 0.99 percent, SCG Packaging shed 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete added 0.45 percent, Thai Oil climbed 0.94 percent, True Corporation stumbled 1.92 percent and TTB Bank, Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank, PTT Oil & Retail and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Thursday and spent much of the day solidly in the green - before a late slump saw them end mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 243.63 points or 0.59 percent to finish at a record 41,335.05, while the NASDAQ sank 39.60 points or 0.23 percent to close at 17,516.43 and the S&P 500 eased 0.22 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,591.96.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to the latest U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing the U.S. economy unexpectedly grew more than previously estimated in the second quarter.

A separate report from the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly lower last week.

Buying interest waned in the latter part of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of closely watched readings on consumer price inflation later today.

The downturn by the tech-heavy NASDAQ also came as shares of Nvidia (NVDA) slumped even though the company reported Q2 results that exceeded expectations and forecast fiscal third quarter revenues above estimates.

Oil prices settled sharply higher on Thursday on supply concerns amid reports Libya has shut off production and halted exports at several ports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October climbed $1.39 or 1.87 percent at $75.91 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide July figures for industrial production, imports, exports, trade balance and current account later today. In June, industrial production fell 1.71 percent on year, imports were down 0.1 percent on year, exports rose 0.3 percent, the trade surplus was $2.40 billion and the current account surplus was $2.00 billion.