Losses May Accelerate For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market inched lower again on Thursday, one day after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 25 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,350-point plateau and it may extend Thursday's losses.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares expected to lead the markets lower. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished barely lower on Thursday following losses from the consumer, financial, industrial and property sectors.

For the day, the index eased 0.61 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 1,352.56 after trading between 1,346.45 and 1,363.55. Volume was 7.873 billion shares worth 40.417 billion baht. There were 271 decliners and 193 gainers, with 201 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info climbed 1.05 percent, while Thailand Airport fell 0.43 percent, Asset World gained 0.63 percent, Banpu dropped 0.95 percent, Bangkok Bank retreated 1.30 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.72 percent, B. Grimm tanked 2.58 percent, BTS Group skidded 0.85 percent, CP All Public rose 0.45 percent, Energy Absolute surged 5.33 percent, Gulf improved 0.83 percent, Kasikornbank slumped 1.22 percent, Krung Thai Bank advanced 0.90 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.49 percent, PTT Oil & Retail stumbled 1.64 percent, PTT sank 0.80 percent, PTT Exploration and Production increased 0.78 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.74 percent, SCG Packaging added 0.57 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.41 percent, Siam Concrete declined 1.27 percent, Thai Oil jumped 1.87 percent, True Corporation rallied 1.69 percent and TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly turned lower, spending most of the day in the red before finishing under water.

The Dow sank 68.42 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 43,153.13, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.95 points or 0.89 percent to close at 19,338.29 and the S&P 500 slipped 12.57 points or 0.21 percent to end at 5,937.34.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the near-term outlook for the markets following Wednesday's rally, which saw the major averages post their largest daily percentage gains in over two months.

Traders were also digesting a slew of U.S. economic data, including reports on weekly jobless claims, retail sales and import prices.

The data was largely in line with expectations and maintained optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the first half of this year.

Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday after Israel and Hamas agreed to implement a ceasefire agreement that was drafted and approved by the UN Security Council. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled lower by $1.36 or 1.7 percent at $78.68 a barrel.