Renewed Support Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had improved more than 20 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,345-point plateau although it figures to rebound on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on continued solid momentum ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the food, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index stumbled 17.60 points or 1.29 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,344.17 after trading as high as 1,362.00. Volume was 6.851 billion shares worth 34.483 billion baht. There were 306 decliners and 156 gainers, with 202 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info skidded 2.08 percent, while Thailand Airport dropped 2.15 percent, Asset World shed 0.65 percent, Banpu lost 0.96 percent, Bangkok Bank retreated 1.60 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical stumbled 1.66 percent, Bangkok Expressway sank 1.48 percent, B. Grimm rallied 1.30 percent, BTS Group was down 0.85 percent, CP All Public surrendered 0.90 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tanked 2.27 percent, Energy Absolute crashed 3.97 percent, Gulf slid 0.83 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.31 percent, Krung Thai Bank declined 1.30 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.97 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 2.54 percent, PTT retreated 2.40 percent, PTT Exploration and Production lost 2.42 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 3.72 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 5.20 percent, Siam Commercial Bank stumbled 1.61 percent, Siam Concrete surrendered 2.91 percent, Thai Oil shed 1.92 percent, True Corporation sank 1.69 percent and TTB Bank slumped 1.58 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but climbed steadily as the day progressed, so they were all in the green by the session's end.

The Dow surged 408.34 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 44,565.07, while the NASDAQ added 44.34 points or 0.22 percent to close at 20,053.68 and the S&P 500 gained 32.34 points or 0.53 percent to end at 6,118.71.

The markets continued to benefit from recent upward momentum, which has help stocks largely offset the sell-off seen earlier this month.

Biotechnology stocks showed a strong move to the upside as the day progressed, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 1.8 percent to its best closing level in almost four years.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims saw further upside last week.

Oil prices fell on Thursday after data showed crude inventories in the U.S. fell less than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March closed down $0.82 or about 1.1 percent at $74.62 a barrel.