Thai Shares May Again Test Support At 1,200 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had tumbled almost 40 points or 3.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,215-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on continuing concerns over U.S. tariffs. The European and U.S. markets finished under water and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index stumbled 15.41 points or 1.25 percent to finish at 1,215.73 after trading between 1,212.54 and 1,235.11. Volume was 10.246 billion shares worth 56.071 billion baht. There were 376 decliners and 140 gainers, with 151 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 1.40 percent, while Thailand Airport gained 0.58 percent, Asset World declined 1.27 percent, Banpu stumbled 3.72 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.34 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical rallied 5.60 percent, Bangkok Expressway soared 4.92 percent, B. Grimm tanked 4.13 percent, BTS Group shed 2.44 percent, CP All Public lost 3.67 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.23 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 4.51 percent, Gulf crashed 3.47 percent, Kasikornbank collected 1.00 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.44 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.49 percent, PTT Oil & Retail weakened 2.61 percent, PTT sank 0.78 percent, PTT Exploration and Production skidded 3.51 percent, PTT Global Chemical plummeted 6.94 percent, SCG Packaging surrendered 3.30 percent, Siam Commercial Bank slid 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete cratered 7.27 percent, Thai Oil dropped 3.67 percent, True Corporation tumbled 1.67 percent and TTB Bank climbed 1.04 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is grim as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but faded into the red as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow stumbled 193.62 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 43,239.50, while the NASDAQ plummeted 530 points or 2.78 percent to close at 18,544.42 and the S&P 500 dropped 94.49 points or 1.59 percent to end at 5,861.57.

Stocks initially benefited from earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), which reported better than expected Q4 results and provided upbeat revenue guidance. But its shares subsequently tumbled by 8.5 percent as the AI darling and market leader also warned about increase global competition.

The sell-off on Wall Street also came as President Donald Trump said 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will go into effect on March 4. Trump said an additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China will also be imposed, claiming without evidence that drugs are pouring into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada and that a large percentage of them are supplied by China.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose much more than expected last week. Also, the Commerce Department said durable goods orders surged more than expected in January.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday as the U.S. decision to revoke Chevron Corporation's license to operate in Venezuela raised supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $1.73 or 2.52 percent at $70.35 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see January figures for industrial production, imports, exports, trade balance and current account later today. In December, industrial production was down 2.11 percent on year, while imports jumped 13.4 percent, exports climbed 8,4 percent, the trade surplus was $1.90 billion and the current account surplus was $2.90 billion.