Soft Star Predicted For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing almost 10 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,330-point plateau although it's likely to open under pressure on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests profit taking, particularly among the technology sectors. 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 modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the energy, property and technology stocks.

For the day, the index gathered 6.09 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 1,329.37 after trading between 1,320.00 and 1,330.01. Volume was 10.644 billion shares worth 40.340 billion baht. There were 247 gainers and 204 decliners, with 197 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 0.45 percent, while Thailand Airport and CP All Public both rose 0.43 percent, Asset World soared 2.76 percent, Banpu surged 4.85 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.11 percent, B. Grimm accelerated 5.09 percent, BTS Group rallied 3.23 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.41 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 9.68 percent, Gulf strengthened 1.21 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.39 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.57 percent, Krung Thai Card slumped 1.30 percent, PTT stumbled 1.50 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slid 0.33 percent, Siam Concrete advanced 0.87 percent, TTB Bank gained 0.56 percent and Siam Commercial Bank, PTT Global Chemical, SCG Packaging, True Corporation, PTT Oil & Retail, Thai Oil, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is largely negative as the major averages opened lower on Thursday; the Dow inched barely into the green, while the S&P and NASDAQ retreated from record highs.

The Dow rose 32.39 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 39,753.75, while the NASDAQ plummeted 364.04 points or 1.95 percent to close at 18,283.41 and the S&P 500 sank 49.37 points or 0.88 percent to end at 5,584.54.

Optimism about the outlook for interest rates contributed to early strength on Wall Street, although it quickly waned as traders seem to have already priced in a rate cut in September.

The subsequent sell-off came as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets, with some of the biggest tech winners of the year like AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) leading the pullback.

Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve is still seen as likely to lower rates in September after a report from the Labor Department showing showed prices in the U.S. unexpectedly edged slightly lower in June.

Oil futures settled higher on Thursday, lifted by hopes of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve after the encouraging inflation data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.52 at $82.62 a barrel.