Thai Shares May Tick Higher On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had slumped more than 20 points or 1.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,390-point plateau and they're expected to open slightly to the upside on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat and directionless on conflicting leads over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The SET finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the food, industrial, property and service sectors.

For the day, the index fell 3.16 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 1,387.72 after trading between 1,381.72 and 1,392.43. Volume was 8.036 billion shares worth 35.418 billion baht. There were 365 decliners and 123 gainers, with 179 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 1.07 percent, while Thailand Airport was down 0.83 percent, Banpu dropped 0.92 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.32 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 1.23 percent, Bangkok Expressway slumped 1.41 percent, B. Grimm lost 0.56 percent, BTS Group weakened 1.67 percent, CP All Public slid 0.44 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tumbled 1.76 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 4.23 percent, Gulf advanced 0.87 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.31 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.50 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tanked 2.40 percent, PTT retreated 1.56 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rallied 2.45 percent, PTT Global Chemical fell 0.40 percent, SCG Packaging plunged 3.66 percent, Siam Commercial Bank sank 0.83 percent, Siam Concrete surrendered 3.02 percent, Thai Oil crashed 3.81 percent, True Corporation stumbled 1.77 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.09 percent and Krung Thai Bank and Asset World were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests little movement as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday, bounced back and forth across the line all day before ending mixed and largely unchanged.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following the release of mixed U.S. jobs data.

While payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector job growth slowed more than expected in December, the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in almost 11 months.

While the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting later in the day, they did not provide much insight into the outlook for interest rates other than to suggest officials plan to take a "careful approach" to future decisions.

Oil futures closed lower on Wednesday as a sharp increase in gasoline stockpiles and a stronger dollar weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended lower by $0.93 or 1.25 percent at $73.32 a barrel.