Thai Bourse May Give Up Support At 1,400 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Thursday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had slipped almost a dozen points or 0.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,405-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. 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 lower on Thursday following losses from the food, finance, property and service sectors, while the energy companies offered mild support.

For the day, the index slipped 6.80 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 1,404.97 after trading between 1,389.46 and 1,411.84. Volume was 14.083 billion shares worth 49.768 billion baht. There were 329 decliners and 150 gainers, with 166 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info sank 0.89 percent, while Thailand Airport rose 0.36 percent, Asset World plunged 2.22 percent, Banpu soared 2.68 percent, Bangkok Bank dropped 0.95 percent, B. Grimm surged 2.99 percent, BTS Group and SCG Packaging both gained 0.68 percent, CP All Public surrendered 1.35 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods skidded 1.05 percent, Energy Absolute jumped 1.65 percent, Kasikornbank retreated 1.13 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.53 percent, Krung Thai Card slumped 1.08 percent, PTT improved 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production advanced 0.93 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.51 percent, Siam Concrete tumbled 1.67 percent and Thai Oil, True Corporation, TTB Bank, PTT Global Chemical, Gulf, PTT Oil & Retail, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened flat on Thursday and hugged the line for the first half of the day before turning lower to end solidly in the red.

The Dow stumbled 220.33 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 33,891.94, while the NASDAQ sank 128.97 points or 0.94 percent to end at 13,521.45 and the S&P 500 lost 35.43 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,347.35.

Stocks showed a notable drop in early afternoon trading after the Treasury Department revealed this month's auction of $24 billion worth of 30-year bonds attracted below average demand, triggering a surge in treasury yields.

The markets saw further downside as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed the outlook for U.S. monetary policy, saying the central bank "will not hesitate" to resume raising interest rates if it becomes appropriate.

Participating in a policy panel in Washington, D.C., Powell acknowledged that U.S. inflation has slowed over the past year but pointed out it remains well above the Fed's 2 percent target.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after two straight sessions of decline on concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December rose $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $75.74 a barrel, due to some short-covering and bargain hunting.