Higher Open Tipped For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had dropped almost 20 points or 1.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,165-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with tariff concerns continuing to linger. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished slightly higher on Thursday as gains from the food, consumer, resource and technology stocks were offset by weakness from the financial, industrial and service sectors.

For the day, the index rose 3.27 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 1,164.01 after trading between 1,162.88 and 1,178.24. Volume was 8.188 billion shares worth 34.788 billion baht. There were 266 gainers and 183 decliners, with 212 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dipped 0.35 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 0.74 percent, Banpu and Thai Oil both improved 0.83 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.69 percent, Bangkok Expressway tumbled 1.85 percent, B. Grimm climbed 1.03 percent, CP All Public retreated 1.55 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 9.15 percent, Gulf strengthened 1.10 percent, Kasikornbank dropped 0.96 percent, Krung Thai Bank lost 0.44 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.18 percent, PTT Oil & Retail sank 0.82 percent, PTT Exploration and Production jumped 1.51 percent, PTT Global Chemical fell 0.48 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.31 percent, Siam Concrete stumbled 2.26 percent and True Corporation, TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Siam Commercial Bank, Asset World, PTT, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday, faded midday but bounced higher into the close.

The Dow climbed 117.03 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 42,215.73, while the NASDAQ added 74.93 points or 0.39 percent to close at 19,175.87 and the S&P 500 rose 23.62 points or 0.40 percent to end at 5,912.17.

Early buying interest was generated in reaction to news that a federal court blocked President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs on imports from U.S. trade partners from going into effect.

But the Trump administration immediately appealed the decision, and an appeals court temporarily paused the lower court's ruling later in the day.

A positive reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA) also contributed to initial strength on Wall Street after the company reported fiscal first quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

Crude oil futures moved sharply lower Thursday amid lingering supply concerns amid the possibility OPEC may accelerate oil production hikes in July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery tumbled $0.90 or 1.5 percent to $60.94 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide April data for industrial production, current account, imports, exports and trade balance later today. In March, industrial production was down 0.66 percent on month, while the current account showed a surplus of $2.30 billion. Imports were up 9.4 percent on year and exports rose 17.7 percent for a trade surplus of $3.40 billion.