Soft Start Likely For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 20 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,180-point plateau and it may open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on lingering concerns over tariffs and the health of the world economy. The European and U.S. markets both were slightly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, consumer, industrial, property, service and technology sectors, while the financials and resource stocks offered support.

For the day, the index lost 7.95 points or 0.67 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,181.71 after trading as high 12 1,200.09. Volume was 9.453 billion shares worth 44.645 billion baht. There were 277 decliners and 218 gainers, with 169 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport crashed 1.22 percent, while Asset World tumbled 1.42 percent, Banpu added 0.46 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.68 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical fell 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway was down 0.90 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 4.27 percent, BTS Group rallied 0.89 percent, CP All Public lost 0.98 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods surrendered 2.48 percent, Energy Absolute dropped 1.63 percent, Gulf plunged 2.45 percent, Kasikornbank jumped 1.90 percent, Krung Thai Bank improved 0.86 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.59 percent, PTT Oil & Retail sank 0.93 percent, PTT surged 3.36 percent, PTT Exploration and Production soared 2.29 percent, PTT Global Chemical skidded 1.06 percent, SCG Packaging slumped 1.27 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete declined 1.49 percent, Thai Oil advanced 0.96 percent, True Corporation stumbled 1.83 percent and TTB Bank and Advanced Info were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Thursday, slipping slightly under water by the close.

The Dow shed 11.31 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 41,953.32m while the NASDAQ lost 59.16 points or 0.33 percent to close at 17,691.16 and the S&P 500 fell 12.40 points or 0.22 percent to end at 5,662.89.

The modestly lower close on Wall Street came amid lingering concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged, but forecasts suggest officials still expect to resume cutting rates later this year.

However, the Fed officials also lowered their projections for GDP growth in 2025 to 1.7 percent from 2.1 percent and raised their forecasts for consumer price growth this year to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after the U.S. slapped fresh sanctions on Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $1.10 or about 1.6 percent at $68.26 a barrel on the expiration day.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release February numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In January, imports were up 7,9 percent on year and exports rose an annual 13.6 percent for a trade deficit of $1.880 billion.